My Life's Story
by hcribley
Summary: Bella-23 culinary grad. Edward-26 business man. What happens when the two of them meet? Will Bella's past come back to get her? Will Edward still be there or will he leave her?  AH. M for violence and language.
1. Chapter 1

**I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT! I just love to make them do stupid shit.**

CHAPTER 1

"I'm not going!" I told my best friend Jake, he wanted to go out tonight and celebrate I wanted to stay in and sleep. I just finished culinary school and was ready to have a few days of peace and quiet. Jake, Paul his boyfriend of 2 years, Rachael his sister, Marcus her husband, Angela, Ben, Jessica and her boyfriend I have yet to meet, all wanted to go out and celebrate, a graduation party of sorts for culinary school, but I just wasn't in the mood. I needed to rest this weekend so that I could start looking for a job on Monday but Jake wouldn't hear of it.

My parents had passed away while I was in school about 2 years ago; they were driving home from dinner one night and were hit by a drunk driver who crossed the line. When I went back to school after there funeral I worked even harder, I wanted to open my own restaurant and name it after them, but I thought I would start out working somewhere first to gain the experience that I needed. I didn't know of any restaurants that were hiring so I was taking a major risk.

"To damn bad you're going, you should be out celebrating that you graduated culinary school! You need to relax a little before going into the working world; I know that you want to start right away but why? I mean you have a nice apartment, granted the car could us an update but I know how much the truck means to you. You are 23 years old you need to live a little first!" Jake ranted to me, I knew that I need to relax for a little but I just wanted to get started the more I learned, the better I would be when I opened my own place.

"I know that but Jake I just want to relax tonight not go out clubbing with a bunch of married people while I'm the only one who doesn't have a date!" That was the main reason I didn't want to go I would feel like the odd man out, I always did, because everyone had a boyfriend or was married. I would be the looser who sat at the table guarding the purses and drinks while they all went out to the dance floor and had fun.

"You know that I'll dance with you so will Paul. This is your party and you need to be there." Jake was relentless trying to get me to go.

"Whatever!" I shouted at him and walked away I knew it would be no use and I would be stuck going anyway. I slammed by bedroom door and walked into my bathroom slamming that door also, I was pissed that I was being forced to go out and I wanted to make Jake aware of that fact. I took my shower in the hottest water that I could stand to try to relax myself but it didn't seem to be working, I was still upset and tense because of it. When I got out, I noticed that Jake has laid an outfit on my bed for me. He picked out the outfit that he had bought me; it was a black crepe viscose jersey tie dress by Gucci and 4-inch heal bootie boots also by Gucci, the outfit looks great but I know how much he spent on it too. This was not something that I wanted to wear out to a club where someone spilling a drink on me or me spilling on myself could ruin it.

"You can't be serious you want me to wear this, to a club where I will spill something on myself! This outfit coasted you a fortune why can't I wear jeans I would be so much more comfortable or better yet not go at all?" I asked him when I came out of my bedroom.

"Because you look hot in it that's why and don't worry so much about the cost geeze! It was my money that I spent besides you need a night to just get dressed up and have fun, who cares if you get something on it, it's just a dress." Sometimes I wondered if he even knew who Gucci was, I know that he did but the way he said it like it was no big deal I clearly think the man had lost his damn mind.

"Fine whatever, let's just go." Jake led me to the taxi we were taking; at least I didn't have to worry about how I was getting home if we all were going to be drinking. When we got to the club there was a line outside but Jake walked up to the bouncer and gave him his name, the bouncer was a huge man, his muscles had muscles, he had brown hair and eyes, when he smiled at me I noticed that he also had dimples. Jake led me to the table that our friends were at I noticed that everyone was there and that Jessica had someone sitting next to here this must be her new boyfriend, he was cute definitely Jessica's type, long curly blond hair, and bright blue eyes. He was introduced to Jake and me as Randall; he works with Jess at Volturi law firm downtown.

"Hello welcome to Eclipse, my name is Amber is there anything that I can start you off with tonight?" Everyone ordered there drinks and we decided on appetizers so we ordered them too. She came back a few minutes later with our drinks and a bottle of champagne for us.

"This was sent over by the owner of the club as congratulation, this is our finest 2002 Louis Roederer Cristal Brut Rose Champagne, hope you enjoy." With that she opened the bottle, filled our glasses and placed the bottle it in the ice and walked away.

"Wow Jake, how do you know the owner of the club?" I didn't know that he knew the owner but you learn something new everyday.

"I don't, I called up here to make reservations, when they asked me what kind of party I was having I just said that it was a graduation from culinary school. I didn't know that they would send something like this to us. But I do know that what you are drinking is about $500.00 a bottle so I hope that you like it." He said just as I took a sip of the champagne. I started to choke on it, who the hell sends a $500.00 a bottle champagne to a table of collage kids that they don't even know!

"Wow I would like to tell that guy thanks, this shit is awesome I understand why it's so expensive though." Marcus said.

"This is the best that I have ever had, it will be hard going back to the other stuff now, but for $500.00 I think I can live without it," Jess laughed.

"No kidding, this is great but who has that kind of money to just drink away?" Rachael asked.

"Apparently the owner does, still it was nice of him to do that for us." Paul said.

"The owner is actually a really nice guy," Angela said quietly. I looked at her in question.

"Have you met him before?" I was curious as to who the owner was.

"His name is Edward Cullen. And he is also my boss at Midnight Sun." That is the restaurant that Angela works, for she's a hostess there. "He's also opening up another restaurant with his brother-in-law Jasper Whitlock."

"Wow, I had no idea that this was his place, I knew that you worked for him but that was it." I replied to her.

Shortly after that everyone got up to go dance leaving me here to watch over everything. This is what I hate the most about going out with the group and not having a date. I must have been so lost in thought that I didn't hear anyone come up beside me.

"What is a beautiful woman like you doing sitting here alone?" The velvety voice asked me. When I turned to see who he was I gasped, he had to have been the most handsome man I had ever seen in my life, he was dressed in a tailored black suite, with shinny shoes, long muscular legs, broad shoulders, a chiseled jaw, unruly bronze colored hair and the most intense green eyes I had ever seen. I noticed that he had a smirk on his lips; man did his lips look as if they would be so soft against mine. I finally snapped out of my ogling of him when I realized he had asked me a question.

"I'm here with my friends celebrating, they all went to dance, and since I'm here alone I get left to watch over our stuff until they come back. Um, wow sorry, I just had a word vomit moment." I laughed awkwardly.

"No that's ok you were fine. How about I take you out there to dance, your stuff will be fine here, nobody is going to touch it.," the man said.

"Um, I don't really know, I think I should just wait for my friends, plus I'm not that great at dancing." I wasn't lying about that, I couldn't dance at all. I have stepped on Jake's toes so many times I'm surprised he has any left.

"It's all in the leading, come on let me show you." He said as he stood up from the chair and offered me his hand. I slowly reached out to grasp his hand when I felt a spark jolt up my arm and down to my toes. When I looked up at him he was looking at my hand, did that mean he felt the jolt too? He led me out to the dance floor and twirled me around brining me close to him. We continued to dance for a while when I realized that I didn't even know what his name was.

"So mystery man what is your name?"

"Edward Cullen, what beautiful lady may I ask is yours?"

"Bella Swan. So you are the one who sent us the champagne right?" He nodded his head yes and it felt like he tightened his hold on me afraid that I would run away. "Thank you that was very generous of you to do that for my friends and me."

"You are very welcome, what are you celebrating if I may ask?"

"I just finished culinary school, 4 years later." I laughed lightly, some think that culinary school would be easy but it's not. "I have my bachelor's degree in culinary arts. That's why it took me so long," I explained.

"Wow that's great well congratulations then, I bet your parents are very proud of you." When he said that I tended up he must have felt me because he said, "sorry I didn't mean to upset you."

"No, it's fine, my parents died about 2 years ago in a car crash, they were hit by a drunk driver." I told him, it was still hard to talk about even though it was so long ago now.

"Sorry to hear about that, is the other guy in jail now?"

"Oh how I wish, no it was a hit and run, they never did find out who it was." I replied. Once the song was over, I thanked him for the dance.

"Thank you, you really are a great teacher, hope I didn't step on your toes to many times." I didn't remember stepping on his toes at all now that I stop and think about it.

"You didn't step on them at all; see I told you it was all in the leading. I really had a great time dancing with you; I hope that I will get to see you again?"

"Me to, I had a great time thanks again." I turned to leave when he caught me by the arm, he wasn't holding it very tightly just enough to stop me.

"May I have your number? I would really like to get to know you more; maybe we can meet for coffee one day this week." He asked me with a hopeful expression on his face.

"Ok, sure," he pulled out his phone and handed it to me. I put my name and number in and then handed it back to him.

"Thanks, I'll give you a call tomorrow in the afternoon and see what we can come up with." I nodded my head in agreement and then we parted ways, I went back to the table where my friends where and we went off towards the bar area.

"Oh my god! Do you know who you were just dancing with?" Angela asked me, she must have been drinking while I was gone because she was slurring her words.

"Yes Ange I know who I was dancing with, you were right he is really nice." I wanted to leave it at that, I wasn't sure if they has saw me giving him my phone number and I didn't want to make a big deal out of it because the chances of him calling were slim to none.

"I don't know about you guys but I'm ready to head home, why don't we get the check and then leave?" I asked everyone at the table they all nodded. When Amber walked by I asked her if we could have the check when she had a moment. She said that she would be right back with it, she left and took care of another table and then came back to us.

"Your tab has already been taken care of by Mr. Cullen; he said I quote 'congratulations again'. I hope that you all had a nice time and will be seeing you again." With that, she smiled at us and left. I sat there stunned, first he bought us a bottle of expensive champagne and then he takes care of our bill for us, I know it wasn't cheep because there was so many of us, when we all got up to leave we made sure that she had a generous tip.

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When I woke up the next morning I had a slight headache not a real hang over but close to it, just then my phone started to ring, great who would be calling me this early in the morning but when I looked at my clock I noticed it was 2pm. I hurried to answer it before going to voicemail.

"Hello," I said trying to catch my breath.

"Hello, I hope I didn't catch you at a bad time." I smiled at the voice on the line, he said that he would call but I didn't think that he really would.

"No not at all I was just rushing to get my phone before the voicemail picked up is all." I tried to stifle my yawn but he must have heard me anyway.

"Did you just wake up?" He asked trying not to laugh at me.

"No," I said blushing, I was a terrible liar and I knew it.

"I think you are lying to me, I think that you just woke up and that is the real reason you were out of breath." He said laughing.

"Ok, ok I just woke up are you happy? I didn't get in until sometime early this morning, but in my defense I was drinking, so I don't know what time it was when I finally got home."

"That's ok; do you want me to call you back so that you could get some more rest?" He sounded concerned about me not getting enough sleep.

"No, I needed to get up and moving anyway. So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this phone call?" I was hoping that he was going to ask me out as he said he would but I didn't want to get to excited.

"Well I said that I would call you today to see what your schedule is like, are you free for coffee later today?"

"Yeah that's fine with me, what time and where would you like to meet?"

"How about 4pm at Starbucks on Michigan Street? Will that give you enough time to get ready and be there?"

"That's fine with me; its right down the road form my apartment." We said our goodbyes and hung up; since I still had time before I had to get ready, I decided that I would get something to eat. When I was done it was 3pm so I went to take a shower and get ready, Starbucks was only a 15-minute walk from my place so I knew that I would have plenty of time.

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I walked into Starbucks and spotted him right away sitting at a table by the window.

"Hi, hope you haven't been waiting to long." I knew that I was only a couple minutes early, but he didn't have anything to drink yet so I wasn't sure how long he had been waiting.

"Hello, I just got here myself. I didn't order yet because I was unsure of what you would like," he said.

"I'll just have a strawberry white mocha please." He nodded his head and went up to place our order, when they were done he placed the cup on the table along with a blueberry muffin in front of me.

"So I know that you just graduated culinary school are you already working somewhere?"

"No, not yet, I was going to start looking on Monday morning. I wanted to give myself a couple of days off to rest now that school was done."

"Did you have some places in mind that you were going to look at?"

"No, I don't know if anyone is hiring. I was planning on just going into the restaurants and putting in apps, I know that's not the best way to do it but I figured it was a start."

"Well I happen to know of a place that is hiring, you could always put in an app there. It's not open yet so you would have a better chance then if you just went into places on a whim." He said, I was wondering where this place was at I would definitely have to look into it.

"Where is this place at?"

"It's on the corner of California and Snow Rd. It's called Twilight, from what I hear the owner is nice."

"I'll check it out Monday then, thanks for the information." I had finished my mocha and so had Edward but we continued to talk for a while. I learned that he liked the color blue, he owns a blue BMW, his favorite food is lasagna, and he likes dogs. He owns several places; clubs, restaurants, apartment complexes and a hotel. I told him that my favorite food was pizza with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese only, I drive a beat up old pickup truck, I also like dogs and my favorite color is green. The afternoon turned into evening as we sat there talking, when I looked at the time it was already 6pm and I was starting to get hungry.

"I had a really nice time, thank you again for the coffee and muffin."

"Your welcome, I also had a wonderful time. Hey, are you doing anything for dinner tonight?" He asked me shyly. I couldn't think of anything that was going on tonight so I told him no. "Would you have dinner with me? I know this great restaurant just down the road."

"Um, I would need to go home and change first, I'm not dressed to go out for dinner," I told him.

"What you are wearing is fine. I'm going in what I have on." He was wearing a pair of jeans and a blue button down shirt. I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt that said 'don't interrupt me while I ignore you', it was one of my favorite shirts but I didn't think it would be something to wear out to dinner.

"If you're sure what I have on is ok, I would love to go to dinner with you." He got up from his seat and held out his hand for me to take, I did without hesitation this time and we walked down to the restaurant he told me about. It only took about 10 minutes to walk there and it was a nice night out. He opened the door for me and led me inside, we didn't even wait to be seated he just went to a table in the back and sat down. I thought it was kind of weird that he did this, but then I remembered that he owned a few restaurants.

"I take it by the way you just walked in here and sat down that this is one of your places."

"Yep this is the first place I opened. I put a lot of work into it in the beginning and it's done really well so far." He handed me a menu to look at, I didn't even notice that he had grabbed them.

"Welcome to Crossroads my name is Rebecca, what can I get you to drink?" The waitress asked us I noticed that she kept her eyes mostly on Edward, not that I could blame her, but didn't she know that he was her boss or the fact that he was sitting with someone?

"Bella baby, what would you like to drink?" He was looking at me with a smirk on his handsome face I started to turn bright read knowing that I was giving this girl a glare.

"I'll just have a coke for now," I replied. She finally turned towards me with a surprised look. It's like she didn't even know I was here at all.

"And for you sir?"

"I'll have a Heineken," he said in a short voice. She wrote our order down and then left to get the drinks.

"I take it the employee's don't know who you are then? Or at least she didn't." I laughed.

"No the wait staff doesn't; I do it that way so when I come in here I can be waited on like any other customer. It gives me the chance to see how they really work, you can talk your way threw an interview, I want to see how they interact with the customers, it tells me more about the person." He explained to me. Just then the waitress came back with our drinks and asked if we were ready to order. I ordered a burger and fries and Edward did the same.

"This also gives me the chance to see how well the food is cooked. With them not knowing me they can't go back to the kitchen and say that this order is for the boss or anything."

"That makes since, if they screw up your order they wouldn't know it so then that would lead you to believe that the cook doesn't know shit about cooking." The waitress brought out our burgers and fries a few minutes later and everything looked to be perfect.

"This looks really good," I said just before taking a bit. "Wow this is great! This is the best burger I have had in years." It really was good; it reminded me of when my dad would make burgers on his grill.

"I'm glad you liked it, we'll have to come back here again." I nodded my head in agreement. We left shortly after that; it was already 9pm; I couldn't believe that we had been sitting in Crossroads for almost 3 hours.

"Would you like me to give you a ride home? I would hate for you to have to walk in the dark, or I could walk with you if you like."

"Um, sure either one is fine with me, thank you; I didn't realize how late it was already. I have to admit, I hate walking alone in the dark." I was glad that he would be taking me home because I didn't know this area that well yet and it was really dark out now, it was creepy to me. We started to walk towards my apartment, it was getting cold out and I was glad that I had brought my jacket with me. When we got to the door we said goodnight, he told me that he would call me later in the week to see if I was busy and would want to meet someplace.

AN:

So tell me what you think. Do I keep going with this?


	2. Chapter 2

**I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT! But I love the books! **

**AN:This story will be slower updating then my first one. I still do not have a beta so I am doing this on my own; I apologize in advance for the grammar and spelling errors. The recipes in this story can be found on my profile page, I would like to say thank you to "all recipes (dot) com" for the ideas. Now on with the story!**

**CHAPTER 2**

"So how did things go with Mr. Hottie? I noticed you gave him your phone number." Angela asked me as we were sitting down to eat. I had asked her to come over for dinner tonight so that I could vent to someone, and I really didn't want to listen to Jake tell me that I needed to live a little again.

"It went well, we met up for coffee yesterday at Starbucks and then we went to his restaurant called Crossroads for dinner. The waitress there was, well she was there, and all she did was ogle Edward. When he asked me what I wanted to drink she turned to look at me and was surprised to see me sitting there with him. It was funny to watch, he got really short with her though because of the starring. But other then that, we had a nice time; he said that he would call me later in the week to see if I was busy. I really like him, he also told me about this place that is opening up on the corner of California and Snow rd. He said that it wasn't open yet but I should still put in the app. What, why are you laughing?" Angela was trying not to laugh but she didn't do a good job of it.

"The place he told you about, did he tell you the name of it?" She asked me, when I thought about that I realized that he did.

"Yeah he said the name was Twilight, why?"

"That's the restaurant that he's opening with his brother-in-law Jasper Whitlock. I can't believe he wouldn't say anything to you about that. You should still put an app in there, he may not be the one doing the hiring, it could be Jasper or even his wife Alice." Angela explained to me. I wondered why he didn't tell me that it was his restaurant; did he think that I wouldn't put in the app knowing that he was part owner?

"I was going to anyway; I mean why would it matter if he was part owner?"

"Maybe he didn't want you to think that you got the job because of him. I don't really know, but I hear the place is going to be comfort foods, he already has the burger place, and Eclipse is his upscale club, and Midnight Sun is Italian food. He's really nice to work for also, I don't know about Jasper though, I see him in Midnight Sun but that's usually to see Edward."

"I guess I might think that I got the job because of him. He said that he was going to call me later in the week because he wanted to get together, and I do want to see him again, but if I were to get the job how would that work? Would he still want to see me outside of work or would he not want anything to do with me? Would the people I work with think that I was getting special treatment because I was spending time with him? UGGG!" I was so confused now; I guess I really understood why he didn't say anything.

"I don't know, maybe this is why he didn't say anything, too many questions and no answers to them."

"I guess, I'll still put the app in and see what happens, the worst thing is that I don't get the job right?"

"Yeah," Angela said. We finished eating and then went into the living room to watch the new cooking show called "Extreme Chef". This was the first show and being a chef myself I wanted to see what kind of situations they were put in. When the show was over Angela said that she needed to get home to Ben, he had to work late tonight, so I sent her home with the leftovers from tonight's dinner.

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Monday morning I went to Twilight and put in the application like I said that I would. I met Alice, she reminds me so much of a pixie, she has short spiky hair and is about 4 foot 11 inches tall. She was really nice and said that they were looking to hire an executive chef for the place still, and would put my application in with the others for her husband to look at. I was glad that I put in the application there; she said that they would only be open from 11am to 10pm everyday.

I called Angela after I left there and told her that I had just put in my application and met Alice, she was happy for me and wished me luck. I went to a few more restaurants and put in applications incase I didn't get the job there; I still wanted to start work as soon as I could.

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Around lunch time I decided that I would stop off and get something to eat, so I found a little pizza place and went in. When I walked in I saw that Edward was there with a blond women and a big burley man. I didn't want to interrupt so I walked up to the counter and ordered a slice of mushroom pizza. I was standing at the counter waiting for my slice when I felt someone come up behind me so I moved over to the side.

"How are you doing Bella?" Edward asked me.

"I'm well, how about you?" I was kind of awkward; I didn't know what to say to him knowing that I had just put in the application earlier today to the restaurant that he had recommended to me.

"I'm well; did you put in the application to Twilight yet?"

"Yeah I did this morning; a lady by the name of Alice said that she would give it to her husband to look at."

"Alice is my sister, her husband Jasper is the owner he's a nice guy I think, you'll like working for him if you get the job." He still didn't say anything about being part owner but he did at least mention that it was his brother-in-law's place.

"I hope so, the hours would be great." I laughed, just then my pizza was ready. I went to grab my plate when Edward grabbed it for me.

"Why don't you sit over here with us?"

"Um, I don't know I don't know who those people are and I don't want to interrupt anything."

"That's just my brother and his wife, come on I'll introduce you to them." He said, as he took my pizza with him.

"Emmett, Rose I would like you to meet Bella, she's a friend of mine. Bella this is my brother Emmett and his wife Rose."

"Nice to meet you both," I said.

"Nice to meet you Bella, Eddie here was just telling us about your date Saturday night. How did you like the joint?" Emmett asked me, I just blushed I didn't really know what to say because I wasn't aware that it was a date.

"Don't call me Eddie, Emmy!"

"Don't call me Emmy, Eddie!"

"As you can see they're having difficulty staying on task, how did you like Crossroads?" Rose asked me, she seemed to not be affected at all by the two of them.

"It was great; I haven't had a burger like that in years. My dad used to make them all the time when I was younger, mainly because it was the only thing that he was good at. He could grill like nobody's business, but to use a stove or microwave to cook something forget it, he was hopeless. My mom was no better though, she would ruin pots trying to boil water, needless to say that we at out a lot." I laughed.

"Wow, is that why you became a chef then?" Emmett asked me, how did he know that I was a chef? "I see the confused look; Edward here said that you just finished culinary school, so I thought that you were a chef."

"I'm not a chef yet I have to find a job first, but that's part of the reason. I started cooking at an early age for obvious reasons, but I love to cook. I used to watch my grandmother all the time; she would often have me help her when I was visiting."

"Have you applied to Twilight? My brother-in-law owns the place; I know that he is looking for a chef."

"Yeah, I applied there this morning; Alice said that she would give him my app."

"Ah, so you have met the pixie then, that's our sister. Don't let her size fool you though, she can get mean!" Emmett laughed. "Ouch, what was that for?" He said looking at Edward while he bent down to rub his shin.

"Shut it Em, don't scare the poor girl, Alice is a…bit energetic, she's like the energizer bunny on crack, but she really isn't that mean. Em here just says that because he picks on her so much that she has to come up with creative ways to get him back."

"Hey! It's not my fault that she is so short." I was laughing at there banter, I noticed that Rose didn't say much, I wonder if she didn't like me being here.

"I should really get going; I have more places that I need to stop at. Thank you for letting me sit here with you guys." I said as I was getting up, Edward got up with me.

"Let me walk you out." I nodded my head to him.

"I know that my brother can be a bit much sometimes, but he really means no harm."

"Oh, he was fine, but did I do something to upset Rose? She was really quiet while I was there."

"No, that's just how Rose is, she like to observe how people are around us is all." He explained. "Hey are you doing anything later tonight?" We were at my truck now; I had to think about that I wasn't sure what was going on later tonight.

"Um, not that I know of but I haven't really talked to anyone yet so I don't know, why?"

"I was wondering if you would like to go out with me tonight. Maybe dinner and then we can take a walk down by the lake?"

"You mean like a date?"

"Yeah, I would like to take you out again, and this one would be a date."

"I would love to, where are we going to go?"

"It's a surprise; I'll pick you up around 6pm?"

"What do I wear then? I have to know how to dress." This is why I hated surprises I needed to know what to wear so that I didn't end up wearing something wrong.

"Nothing real dressy, just comfortable." That didn't help me out any at all. I just rolled my eyes at him. "Don't' give me that," he laughed at me.

"That doesn't really tell me much you know."

"I know, but that's the fun in it." He said smiling at me.

"Ok fine, I'll see you at 6 then." I turned and climbed into the truck and Edward shut my door for me.

"Good luck with the job hunt." He said just before walking away.

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I spent the rest of the afternoon going to different restaurants putting in applications, but most of them were not hiring at this time. I was getting a little worried that I might not find a job as fast as I would have liked. You would think that with all the business's here that someone would be hiring but most said that they were cutting back right now.

I got home around 4pm and decided that I would look threw my closet first to see if I could find anything to wear for tonight's date, I didn't want to have to call Jake and ask him. I finally decided on my blue v-back silk dress with my Jimmy Choo suede sandals. I think that Jake would be proud that I was able to pick out this outfit for myself. When I looked at the clock I noticed that it had taken me longer then I thought to pick out something to wear, I now had 45 minutes to get ready before Edward would be here to get me. I rushed threw the apartment to take a shower. I put my hair up into a French twist, if we were going to be out by the lake I didn't want my hair to be blowing in my face the whole time. Once that was done I applied my make-up, and went to get dressed, I was just putting my shoes on when there was a knock at the door. When I answered it I almost fell over, there in front of me was Edward in a blue Armani suit, and the color almost matched my dress.

"You look absolutely beautiful." He said when he finally was able to speak; it was nice to know that I rendered him speechless.

"Thank you, you look handsome yourself." I replied blushing, I don't normally get compliments so they tend to make me uncomfortable at times.

He wrapped my hand around his arm and led me to his car waiting outside for us. It was a blue BMW Z4 Roadster with leather interior; he had the top down so I was glad that I wore my hair up.

"Are you going to tell me now where we are going? I don't like surprises just so you know." I was trying really hard to get it out of him where we were going but he still wouldn't tell me.

"We'll be there in just a few more minutes, and then it won't be a surprise anymore." I just rolled my eyes at him.

"Ok, fine, whatever don't tell me then." I smiled at him so that he knew I was just joking around. About 10 minutes later we pulled into the park; I was wondering what we were doing here when Edward got out of the car and went to the truck. He pulled out what looked like a picnic basket and a blanket, now I understood why he said to dress comfy. He then came around to my side of the car and opened the door for me, I took his hand and stepped out. We walked a little ways from the car to a nice shade tree, he placed the blanket on the ground and then motioned for me to sit, and when I did he sat down next to me and opened up the basket. Inside he had a bottle of champagne, it looked like the Cristal stuff that we had before, with two glasses, next he took out a few boxes but you couldn't see what was in them. He popped the cork on the bottle and poured us each a glass handing one to me.

"This is beautiful, do you come here often?" I asked him, I was wondering if he brought all of his first dates here.

"No, Jasper told me about this place, this is the first time that I have been here myself. He said that it was a great place to watch the sunset out over the lake." I could see that it would be beautiful to watch.

"Thank you for bringing me here."

"Shall we see what is inside these boxes? I have to confess I didn't make this, I can't cook to save my life, but I did have it prepared by one of my chefs at Midnight Sun." He looked at me sheepishly, I just laughed.

"Well thank you anyway, I'm glad that you didn't try to cook it if you don't know what you are doing. I have had my fare share of meals that were made by my parents. My mom would try to come up with something new instead of just using her cookbooks that she had. Let's just say that when she wasn't looking I would place it in my napkin on my lap. She tried, but if we didn't have an ingredient that it called for she would sub it with something that we did have, and it would be horrible." I missed my parents, even though they couldn't cook. I still wish that the cops would find out who had hit them, but they closed the case so I knew it would never happen.

"Wow you must have had to do that a lot then? I'm lucky that both of my parents can cook. My mom would always make my lunch for me, for school, using what we had the night before, if there was any left. Emmett has a big appetite and could eat almost everything that she made."

"You're very lucky then. What do your parents do for a living?" This was the first time that he had mentioned them, so I was curious about what they did.

"My mom is an interior designer and my dad is a surgeon for the hospital here. My brother Emmett and his wife own the auto shop in town, she works on the cars and he does the business side of things. My sister Alice owns her own boutiques, and Jasper is a restaurateur."

"I don't have any brothers or sisters, so it's was just me and my parents." I told him, I wish that I did but I knew that my mom couldn't have anymore after me, though she never did tell me why.

"Well I will gladly share mine with you," he told me, I just smiled my thanks. I wasn't sure how to take that comment because I didn't know if we were dating or just friends at this point. He started to open the boxes that were laid out before us; there were 6 boxes all together. He had what looked like tomato bruchetta for a starter, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, mushroom risotto, cavatelli and broccoli for the side dishes, chicken marsala for the main meal, and the best dessert ever tiramisu.

"Wow this looks wonderful, is this what you serve at Midnight Sun also?"

"Yeah, this was on tonight's menu, we change the menu everyday so that you have a variety of things, and it's not so hard on the chef's with a huge menu of items to prepare. We give the customers a few meals to choose from and the chef's take care of the rest." I liked that idea, it would be easier on the chefs then to have to remember a menu that was several pages in length, it also cuts down on the time the customers have to wait to be served.

.

.

When we were done with dinner Edward packed up the basket and stood up, he offered me his hand to help me up and we walked closer to the lake to watch the sunset. It was so beautiful with all the colors shinning. I felt Edward move behind me and place his hands on my hips; I leaned back just a little to rest against him.

"Thank you for this, it's beautiful out here." I said quietly, it was so peaceful I didn't want to disturb it.

"You're welcome, and thank you for letting me bring you here. The sight is very beautiful." He wrapped his arms around me when he felt me shiver thinking that I was cold. We stood like that for awhile until the sun was completely gone from the sky, and then we headed back to his car.

On the drive back to my place he held my hand the whole way, it was nice, we didn't need to talk the whole time it was a comfortable silence. About 20 minutes later we arrived back at my apartment complex, he got out of the car to open my door for me, when I was out he closed it and walked me to the door.

"Thank you again for coming out with me tonight; I had a really great time."

"Me too, thank you for a wonderful date." I turned to open the door but he put his hand gently on mine to stop me, when I turned around he gave me the most wonderful kiss I had ever had in my life. There was no rush just passion. We finally had to pull away for some air.

"I would like to see you again, are you available on Friday night?" He asked me nervously, did he really think that I would say no?

"I'm available, what did you have in mind?" Not that it would have mattered any, he could have said that we were going to a baseball game and I would have still gone even though I know nothing of the sport.

"I was thinking of taking you out to dance, not a club, but a nice dinner and dancing, how does that sound to you?"

"It sounds great, but I can't promise that I won't step on your toes this time." I laughed, the last time we danced I did really well, but I wasn't going to chance it again.

"You can step on my toes, I won't care." He has such a wonderful smile on his face, I reached up to place my hand on his cheek, when he bent down I gave him a gentle kiss goodnight.

"I guess I will see you Friday then, goodnight Edward, thanks again for a wonderful night." I said as I walked into my apartment, when I locked the door behind me I could hear him walking away.

AN:

So they had there first date what will happen next? Review and tell me what you think good or bad.


	3. Drama

**I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT!**

**HAPPY 4****TH**** EVERYONE!**

Ok so they have had there first date, will they get to have more? I predict drama to come your way! This chapter talks about abuse, I will not go into graphic detail, just telling what damage was done, and there will be no Rape in this story at all.

**CHAPTER 3**

The days continued on with me still going out every morning and putting in applications, but it was the same thing, they weren't hiring right now or they were cutting back hours. I was starting to get frustrated in not being able to find anything.

I had talked to Edward almost every night, he would call around 7pm and we would talk for a few hours. I was sad that we had to get off the phone at night, but I had to sleep and so did he. We learned a lot about each other, he told me more about his family and I told him more about mine. We talked about movies, music and anything else that we could think of at the time.

I talked to Jake also; he said that I should keep up with the applications that I had put in so that they knew I was interested in the job. I told him about my date with Edward and he just said that I needed to be careful. He also said that if I was going to continue my relationship with Edward then I needed to tell him about my past. I was scared to tell him, but Jake was right I needed to do this or we couldn't have a relationship.

I had asked Jake to come over and help me with the outfit I was going to wear tonight because I had no idea what would be a good dress for dancing in.

"This one, it's a halter dress and not tight around the waist so you'll have room to move around, plus I love the dark purple color on you. Do you know what type of dancing you will be doing?"

"No, he didn't say, just that we're going to dinner and then dancing afterwards. Why does it matter what dress I wear?" I knew nothing about dancing, so if there were different types other then the way we danced at his club I was in big trouble.

"Yes, there are many different dances; he does know that you don't dance right?" He snickered.

"I have danced with him before; remember when we went to Eclipse? He was the guy I was dancing with that night, he owns the place."

"Oh, yeah I remember that guy. He was hot! I know, I know, I have Paul so I shouldn't complain. And I'm not, but I will give you props girl, you sure can pick them." At least he thought Edward was hot, I know that I did. "Well at least you will have a good time then. I have to go and meet with Paul in 20 minutes so I'll let you get ready, if you need anything call me ok?" He gave me a kiss on the cheek and then left.

I decided that I was just going to put my hair up in curlers and then leave it down. I didn't really know what else to do with it; I had worn it up the last time we went out. When my hair was up in the curlers I applied my make up and waited while my hair dried, when that was finally done my hair had nice big curls that fell down to the middle of my back. I put my dress on and my Christian Louboutin silver metallic strappy sandals; I still had about 10 minutes before Edward was to show up. There was a knock at my door so I opened it not looking in the peephole thinking that Edward was early. I should have looked, it would have saved me the panic attack I was about to have when I opened the door.

"I have found you again, did you really think that you could leave me and that would be the end of it? You should know by now that I always get what I want." He said as he pushed his way into my apartment.

"What are you doing here? How did you get out of jail?" I was scared now, nobody had notified me that he was getting released from prison, if they would have I would not have left my house in fear that he would find me again. I had barely escaped with my life the last time and I knew that if he found me again that I would die this time. I wished that I had my cell with me so that I could try and get Jake here, he was my lawyer threw the whole mess; he should have been the one to tell me that he had been released.

"I was released on good behavior today, did you miss me?"

"No! I want you to get out and leave me alone!" I said just as there was another knock at my door, great now what do I do, do I answer it and let him in or do I ignore it and act like I'm not home. He knocked again so I decided that I would answer it.

"Hey, you look…what's wrong are you ok?" He asked me worriedly. I didn't know what to say, no I wasn't ok, but I wasn't ready to tell him this story yet either.

"Yeah, I'm fine, come on in for a few minutes, I have a guest that was just leaving." I said shakily, I didn't want to have this blow up in my face but something told me that it was going to happen anyway. As we walked into the living room I grabbed my cell from the counter by the door and started typing S.O.S 911 to Jake, now I just hope he understands and gets here quickly.

"Are you sure you're ok? I could hear yelling while I was outside, is this person bothering you?" Edward whispered to me. I just looked at him with pleading eyes that he drops it for now, and he did thankfully.

"Ah, I see now why you were so dressed up, and here I thought that it was my welcome home." He sneered at me.

"Oh yes, had I known that you had been released then I would have moved again, granted I've only had to move 3 times because of you. How did you find me this time anyway? I moved to another state and you managed to find me." I really wanted to know how he kept finding me, I had moved 3 times before because of him and now it looks like I will be moving again. I still hadn't unpacked all of my boxes from this move, now I will have to rush and pack again.

"I can't tell you that my dear, then you would know how to get away again."

"Well now you have found me again, you can go now. You know I just thought about something, I have a restraining order on you; you are now in violation of that! Hope you have fun in jail again." I could hear the sirens in the distance, but I don't think that he did yet, even if he tried to run now they would catch him. I was glad that Edward stayed quiet the whole time, it made things easier on me. I could see out of the corner of my eye Edward typing on his phone, I was curious as to how he was talking to but I didn't want to draw any attention to him, and I didn't want to take my eye's off of the man in front of me. Before he had a chance to do anything the police came threw the front door followed by Jake. Thank god they showed up when they did, I didn't know what was going to happen. The police took him away in cuffs while reading him his rights, I was glad they had him again, but I didn't know how long that was going to last.

"What the hell Jake! You were supposed to notify me when he got out, what the hell happened?" I walked over to him and took out my anger on his arms and chest, granted I know I didn't do any damage to him, but it still felt nice to hit something. I felt someone grab me from behind and pull me away.

"LET ME GO!" I started to scream at the person.

"Bella, you need to calm down, I know that you are upset that he got in here, and I don't know what the story is but you need to calm down. The cops want to talk to you, ok?" Edward said to me, I nodded my head that I heard and understood what he said, so he released the hold that he had on me.

The officers came over to me then, now that I had calmed down some to ask me questions, I guess Edward was going to find out now about my past.

"Can you tell me what happened here?" The officer asked me. I took a deep breath to being what had happened; when I was ready I began.

"About 3 years ago we were dating, at first he was great, attentive, caring, we went out all the time, he tried to get along with my friends, but sometimes they would argue. About 6 months later he changed, it was over night, he would start to get mad at me for the little things, and I would be late getting home from class so he thought that I was cheating on him. I wasn't but it still hurt that he thought that I would do that to him. Then he would start showing up at my classes, I didn't think much about it at the time because he was working, or so I thought, I just thought that he finished early and was there to have lunch with me. He continued to do this for about a month, then one day I was late getting out of class, I was stopped by my professor, he wanted to let me know that they had an opening at the student diner, I was in there maybe 5 minutes after everyone had left the class when he came barging into the room yelling at me about seeing my professor. I tried to tell him that nothing was going on, that he was letting me know that there was an opening at the student diner that was all, but he didn't believe me. He turned his anger onto the professor, started saying that he was going to the school board and would report him that he was going to have him fired for messing around with students. He grabbed me roughly by the arm and pulled me out of the classroom before I even had a chance to tell the professor that I would take the job. When we got back to my place he started yelling at me again about me cheating on him and how I was worthless, that nobody would ever want anything to do with me, that was the real reason why my parents left, they didn't want anything to do with me. I knew what he was saying about my parents wasn't true but it was still a sore subject at the time." I was trying really hard not to let those feeling come back to me, but it was hard, I could feel the tears in my eyes wanting to release but I held them back I needed to finish telling the story. "One night we were sitting at my apartment watching some movie, I can't even remember what it was now, but something in the movie set him off, he just turned to me and told me that I was a worthless piece of shit and started to hit me. I ended up waking in the hospital 17 days later; I don't remember how I got there or what had happened. When I woke up Jake had the doctors come in and talk with me telling me what my injuries were. I suffered a severe concussion, multiple broken ribs, a broken nose, broken jaw, and my left leg was also broken. When my head was hit it caused me to pass out so I don't remember anything after that, I do know that he did not rape me, which was the only thing that he didn't do. I spent 2 weeks in the hospital after I woke up going threw physical therapy and also seeing a therapist for the trauma that I had gone threw. If you want I can give you here name and phone number, I still see her now about once a month, but after today I will be seeing her more. While I was in the hospital, he had been put in jail; he was sentenced to 3 years for aggravated assault. I have moved 3 times in the last 3 years because somehow he would find out my address, I made sure that my number was unlisted I did everything that I could think of so that he wouldn't find me, but he does. He told me the last time in a letter that when he gets out it will be the last time that I see him, because he will make sure that I suffer like he did in jail. Jake, my lawyer has those letters, I had a restraining order placed on him also but that doesn't seem to stop him from contacting me somehow. I came home one day to a box on my porch, I was waiting for a delivery so I didn't think anything about opening it, when I did it was pictures of me that had been taken recently, they were of me coming and going to school, when I would go out with friends things like that, unfortunately then were never able to find out who it was who took the pictures." I had never been so scared to leave the house after those pictures showed up. "I moved again, but he still found me, that time he sent me flowers with notes letting me know how many more days until he was going to be released, when I got the first ones I called the cops but they couldn't prove that it was him because he didn't use the phone to call anyone, and there was no traces on his credit cards. I moved again, that brings us to now, I have been here about 6 months now, in fact I don't have my boxes unpacked yet. How he manages to find me I don't know. I was not notified that he was being released, he told me that he was released today for good behavior, how is that even possible when he was still in jail violating the restraining order?"

"I'm not sure ma'ma but I will check into it for you, how did he get into the house today?" The officer asked

"I was waiting for my date to show up, it was about 10 minutes before he was due to be here, and I thought that it was him so I answered the door without looking out the peephole. When I opened the door he just pushed me out of the way and walked right in."

"Is this gentlemen here your date?"

"Yes, this is Edward, he has been here for almost all of what happened, and he showed up about 5 minutes after it all started." I could feel Edward come up and place a comforting hand on my lower back, I was so exhausted that I laid my head on his shoulder.

"When I first got here I could hear someone arguing it sounded like Bella and a man, but I didn't know who it was, so I knocked on the door to let her know that I was here, it took a minute for her to answer and when she did I could tell that something was wrong right away. But she told me that she was fine, that she was trying to get rid of an unwanted guest." He told the officer. After a few more questions the officer's left they said that they would be back later if they had anything else they needed to know.

"JAKE! What the hell? I thought that I would be notified that he was out of jail, what happened? Why didn't you tell me? How could you not tell me?" I started spewing questions at him as soon as the cops were gone.

"I'm sorry Bella, I had no idea that he was out, I have been in the office all day so I should have been notified that he was even going up to the board to be released, nobody told me anything. I will be looking into it though as soon as I get back to work. I will also be looking into how the hell he found you again; I mean you have moved to another state. I wish I had more answers for you, but unfortunately I don't at this time. Are you going to be ok here tonight? Do you want to come and stay with me and Paul? You know that we have an extra room for you; I don't think that it would be a good idea to stay by yourself tonight. I know that he is in jail, but I don't know how long they will keep him for." Jake told me, I was kind of worried but at the same time I didn't want to stay with him and Paul, they get kind of loud at night and I really don't want to hear it.

"No, I'll be fine here, they will at least keep him over the weekend, plus I'm going to need to start packing again anyway, at least I didn't sign a year lease this time." I actually liked this apartment too, but obviously the security sucks.

"Ok, do you want me to get everyone together for tomorrow to help you pack? Do you even know where you are going to go this time? The security at my place is much better then this, I mean all you have here is a doorman, that's not really security at all if you ask me."

"I don't know yet, Jake you are my best friend and I love you and Paul to pieces, but I do not want to listen to the two of you going at it all night, sorry bud."

"I see how it is, fine be that way," he laughed. He hugged me goodbye and kissed me on the cheek and then left, now I was alone with Edward I didn't even know where to start with him.

"Ok, first off I want to say I am so, so sorry about today, I had no idea that he was out of jail let alone that he would find me that quick. I would completely understand if you want to walk out that door and not look back." I said to him, I couldn't even look at him I just stared at my shoes. I saw his shoes in my line of sight and then I felt him place his finger on my chin so that I would look at him, when I met his eyes I saw concern, and another emotion I didn't know.

"It's ok, I'm not upset about that, he did something horrible to you, what I am concerned about is you. Are you going to be ok? Do you have someplace to go, I know that Jake said you could stay with him, but I do own an apartment complex, you are more than welcome to stay there, they have a tight security system also. You have a keycard to use along with a pass code to get in the front door, then to use the elevator you have to use your keycard. There is also a doorman who will periodically check id's on people, once he get's to know who you are then he won't card you as much." Edward explained to me, now the real question was how much this would cost me a month. "If you don't mind my asking what was that guys name?"

"His name is James Trakker, we dated for about 6 months total before he was put in jail. So where is this place at?"

"Its downtown, not to far from Midnight Sun, it's a higher class area but the rent will be affordable for you." Why did it sound like he wouldn't charge me the normal rent?

"How much? I want the price that anybody who applied there would have to pay, not a special price."

"Well everyone else would be paying $2,500.00 a month." I started to choke on my own spit, holy shit that was ridiculous, "but I would charge you what you are paying here, that's what $800 a month?"

"I wish I paid that much, no I pay around $1200 a month, but that wouldn't be right if I was only paying half of what the rest of the tenants are paying."

"Well it's not up to them, it's up to me, and honestly you could live there for free if it meant that you would be safe from that psycho-ex of yours."

"Well I won't be living there for free that's for sure, but I can live with paying my current rent now, until I find a job, I'm on a tight budget. Once I have a steady income I'll let you know so that you can raise it, how does that sound to you?" I couldn't believe I was negotiating this with him.

"Sounds good to me, why don't we go over there now? I can show you were it is and what it looks like so when everyone get's here tomorrow you will have someplace to tell them to put your stuff. If you need more help, my brothers and I could be here also to help you out." He said sincerely, I thought that was nice of him to offer his brothers help. "Do you have a preference as to what floor you are on?"

"Thank you for the offer but I'm not sure yet who will all be here. Are you sure it's not too late? I would like to look at this spectacular apartment," I said laughing. "No it doesn't really matter to me." He grabbed my hand and led me to the door.

.

.

Once we were on our way I noticed that the area we were in was very high class, my truck alone would be an outcast. I wasn't so sure this would be the place for me, we pulled up to the building called E.C Apartments and I immediately knew that I would not fit in here. Before I could say anything Edward was out of the car and at my door opening it for me. When we walked inside we were greeted right away by the doorman on duty.

"Good evening Mr. Cullen, what can I do for you today," the man asked. He seemed like a nice guy, a bit intimidating though, he was tall about 6 feet, muscular, blond hair, and green eyes.

"Amun I would like you to meet Bella Swan, she will be living in the apartments here, and will be moving in first thing in the morning. I need to get the keys for her apartment, also I need you to make a note about this man here," he said pulling out his cell phone. I didn't even know that he took a picture of him. "He is not allowed to be in this apartment building at all. Not even standing outside of the doors, if you see him I want you to call the police immediately."

"No problem Mr. Cullen, let me go get those keys for you, I'll be right back." He said as he walked into the office to get the keys for my new apartment. When he returned he handed the keys to me and explained that the keycard would activate the outside door and elevator only, but the actual key would get me into the apartment and any of the community rooms.

"Your pass code will be on here for now; you have 24 hours from now to change it otherwise we will have to reset it for you. Have a good ma'ma."

"Thank you," I said as we walked over to the elevator. We stopped on the 6th floor, I knew that my apartment number was 619 (for those wrestling fans) so I headed in that direction with Edward following me, he hadn't said anything since we got the keys from Amun, I was worried that maybe he was changing his mind and didn't really want me to be here. When we reached the apartment number I was looking for Edward reached out to stop me from putting the key in the locks.

"Before you open this door I want you to know that all of the apartments are the same." He said cryptically.

"O…k," I said slowly, I wasn't sure how I should take that remark but I opened the door anyway. Now I understood why these apartments cost so much, this place was huge; I mean my old apartment would fit in the living room alone. When you first walked in the door you walked right into a foyer, from there you walked into the living room, there was also the dinning room, kitchen, 3 bedrooms one was the master, 2 bathrooms, and a small laundry room.

"What do you think is it going to be someplace that you will feel comfortable in?" He asked me nervously. I just nodded my head dumbly because I was totally speechless; there were no words to describe how beautiful this place was.

"Wow, this place is…wow, I just don't have the words for it, thank you so much." I told him and threw my arms around him to hug him tightly to me. I could feel him tense for a moment and then put his arms around me and hold me just as tight to him.

"I'm glad you like that place, I just want you to be safe, and I know that you will be here." He mumbled into my hair.

"Thank you," I said as I kissed his cheek.

AN:

It will be a few days before the next chapter is posted. Sorry.


	4. Chapter 4

**I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT!**

I want to thank all of the readers who are enjoying this story so far.

There will be acts of violence in this chapter, but again there will not be rape.

CHAPTER 4

The following day Jake came over to help me pack, he said that Paul couldn't be here right now but he would be here later to help me. Ben and Angela were at her parent's house so they couldn't be here to help this time, and Jessica was out of town with Randall. Rachael and Marcus were babysitting this weekend so they wouldn't be able to help either.

"So, have you found a place to stay yet?" Jake asked me as we were packing up the kitchen. I knew that he wasn't going to like what I told him.

"Yeah, um, last night after you left, Edward took me over to one of the apartment buildings that he owns, I'll be paying the same amount there as I was here in rent, so that will help out a lot." I thought maybe this would help easy the blow of when he actually saw the place.

"Oh, so you will stay with him them? Don't you think it's a little early to live with the guy, I mean you have only gone out on one date? Are you even dating yet? You met him what 2 weeks ago right? Why would you be living with him?" Jake sounded really upset and hurt that I would be there.

"I'm not living with him; he owns the apartment building that's all. Yes I have only known him for 2 weeks, but he still offered me the apartment. As for us dating, I don't know, like you said we have only been out on one date, we were going on our second one when all of this happened. The building has a lot of security to it also, when we first walked in the doorman greeted us right away, and Edward showed him a picture of James and said that he was not allowed in the building or outside of it; if he was around they were instructed to call the police right away. You have to have a keycard and pass code to even get in the place, so that will help to keep him out I hope."

"Let's hope so, it sounds like the security in this place is good. That was nice of him to offer one of his apartments for you to rent, he does know that once James finds you again that you will be out the door moving right?"

"I don't know Jake; let's see what happens here ok. Maybe the security will be good enough that I won't have to move, I would really like that. I'm tired of moving, this packing up your life to start over is getting ridiculous, I mean why should I have to move every time he finds me, why can't the police do what they are supposed to do? Why where we not notified that he was getting released?" I was ranting, I knew it but I was frustrated that this was happening again. Jake came over to me and wrapped me in his arms, I broke down then, I was scared that James was going to live true to his words, but at the same time I was angry that I had to move again. I guess in a sense I didn't really have to, but there was no security here and I knew that with him out of jail that I needed to move someplace that had security to it.

"Shh, it's going to get better right? I mean you have this wonderful guy here who is your lawyer, he will find out why the hell you weren't notified about his release, and you also have a guy who is looking out for your security, not to say that I don't but I really did drop the ball on this one. Plus you have great friends who would love for you to stay here with us and not have to move across the country again." I nodded my head, I didn't want to have to move across the country again either, it didn't work out so well the last time, I figured if me moving to another state didn't stop him from finding me then I should be by my friends, so I moved back. I don't know how long we stayed like that, but we were interrupted by a knock on the door, I wasn't expecting anyone so I asked Jake if he would answer it for me. I stayed in the kitchen just out of the way so nobody could see me but I could still hear everything that was going on.

"Hi, can I help you with something?" Jake asked the person at the door.

"Yes, I'm looking for Bella is she home?" I didn't recognize the voice so I had no idea who it was.

"She's not here right now; can I ask who you are? I can let her know that you stopped by."

"My name is Emmett, I'm Edwards's brother, and he said that you guys might need help packing things up and moving into the new apartment." When Emmett introduced himself I walked over to the door.

"Jake it's ok, he is Edwards's brother. Hi Emmett, nice to see you again." I smiled at him, he seemed like a great guy but I hadn't really talked too him much.

"Hey Bella, that was a smart idea to stay hidden from the door; I would have been kind of pissed if you would have answered. I know that Edward has told you that I work at the shop with my wife Rose, but I also do security as well." I moved out of the way so that he could come into the apartment, Rose was right behind him also, I wasn't expecting her to be here and help us.

"Hi Rose, nice to see you again," she was intimidating and I wasn't sure how to take her yet either, she was quiet the whole time we were at the pizza place.

"Nice to see you too, I see that you have someone here with you." The tone she used I think that she thought that Jake was my boyfriend or something and that I was leading Edward on.

"Yeah, this is my best friend Jake; his boyfriend Paul will be here later to help us out." I thought I would just get that out of the way now so there was no confusion later. This way she also knew that he was in no way interested in me. It was a common problem with us, people always assumed that we were together because we would hold hands walking down the street or he would kiss me on the cheek.

"Oh, that's nice of him." I could tell right away that was what she was thinking.

"It's ok Rose, most people have thought that we are together but he want's nothing to do with me that way, we have been best friends since we were in diapers. Our parents were friends so we grew up together also." Rose nodded in understanding, I could tell that she was trying not to pass judgment but it's hard when you don't know that Jake is gay.

"So how did you know that I was moving today? You know what never mind, I know how." I shook my head and laughed, he had said that his brothers would be able to help me today, and I hadn't called to tell him that I needed the help so he just sent them anyway.

"Jasper, Alice, and Edward will be here in just a couple of minutes, I wanted to see how you would answer the door. Ed said that Jake didn't know who I was so it would be best to send me up first, this way if you answered the door you knew who I was but if someone else answered they wouldn't. I don't know if you have met Jasper yet so we didn't want to send him just in case."

"Ok, well thank you for helping me, my other friends were busy this weekend and couldn't help out. They always have before, even when I lived across the country, they all flew out to help me pack up and move back here."

"How many times have you moved?" Rose asked me curiously.

"3 times in the last 3 years. I'm so sick of packing up and moving because of that jackass, I wish they would lock him up and throw away the key, but even that won't stop him. He found out where I lived when I was out of state also, he was still in jail then, so he had to have someone following me or something. I made sure that my name was unlisted in the phone book and that nobody but my friends had my address or phone number, but somehow he managed to find me again. That was the second time; this is my third when I moved into this building 6 months ago. Now it will be my fourth time in 3 years, yippy joy!"

"Wow," was there only reply. I guess Edward didn't tell them that part.

"How much did Edward tell you about the situation?" I asked just as there was another knock on the door, I just looked at Jake for him to answer it, when Emmett said that he would because he was sure he knew who was at the door. When he came back in Edward, Alice and a man I didn't know walked in, I'm guessing that he must be Jasper.

"Hey," I said as I got up to go met Edward, I wrapped my arms around his waist and he wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head in greeting.

"Hey, how did you do last night? Did you get any sleep?" He asked me, I just shook my head, I didn't sleep much last night, I was too worried that he would come back and finish the job that every little noise made me jump. "Well tonight you will sleep soundly in your new apartment. I want to introduce you to Jasper; I know that you met Alice when you put in your application at Twilight." He said as he turned me around in his arms so that my back was to his chest but his arms were still around me. "Jasper, this is Bella and her friend Jake, guy's this is Bella." I noticed that he didn't put a title after my name so I didn't know what to think about that.

"Hi, nice to meet you Jasper," I said as I shook his hand in greeting.

"Nice to meet you as well, I have gone over your application also, once you get settled into the new apartment come on over to Twilight and we can talk some more."

"Ok I will, thank you," I said. I directed everyone to where they could start and gave them boxes and the packing supplies they would need. I still had a lot of items that were already packed up so those were loaded into my truck and the truck Emmett had brought over with him. Edward took them all over to the new apartment to unload and then come back, we continued this well into the night only stopping to eat. Around 10pm, Jasper and Alice said they would be back in the morning to help finish up what was left. Emmett and Rose said they would also be back to help. Paul and Jake were going to take one last load over to the new place and call it a night themselves. Since the bed was still here I decided that I would stay here tonight because while my couch looked comfy, it was a killer on the back to sleep on.

"Thank you everyone for your help today, I don't know how I would have got as much done without you all." I said as everyone was leaving for the night, I gave everyone a hug when they left. I was really grateful that they helped out, it would have taken be days to get this all done and loaded if it would have been just Jake and I doing it.

"What time do you want me here in the morning?" Edward asked me on his way to the door.

"I guess around 10am, that way everyone will have had a good nights sleep and it's not too early in the morning, there isn't much left that will go over there."

"Are you going to stay here again tonight? I know that you said you slept but I can see it in your eyes that you really didn't. Why don't you go over to the new place?" He asked me, he seemed like he wanted to say something else but then just stopped.

"My bed is still here, and though the couch looks comfy it's not. I have fallen asleep on that more times then I care to admit and I always wake up the next morning with back pain."

"You could always stay at my place; I mean I have an extra room you can stay in. Then you will at least get some sleep, not having to worry about that guy finding you. He wouldn't be able to get in anyway; you have seen how the security is there."

"You live there too? I didn't know that, why didn't you say anything?"

"I was going to take you there this weekend and try to cook dinner for you, but things kind of got in the way." I felt really guilty that he had all of these plans and I screwed them up. "Hey, don't feel guilty about it; it was not your fault in anyway. Like you said they should have notified you about him getting out of jail, so you had no idea, things happen. I'm not mad about it, if that's what you're thinking." He said gently, I could see in his eyes that he wasn't mad about having to cancel our plans or any plans that he had for us this weekend.

"I don't know I just don't want to be in your way tonight. Don't you want to go out, it's a Saturday night, you should be going out to the bars picking up chicks and having a good night, not worrying about how I sleep."

"I don't want to go out unless you are going with me, I really do like you and would like to see where this relationship goes; do you not want that?" He was nervous when he asked me, of course I wanted it but I wasn't sure if he did.

"Yes I do want that, I just wasn't sure what was going on with us is all. I mean do I introduce you as a friend or someone I am currently seeing? I mean I don't know, the last boyfriend I had well you've met him, he turned out to be a real treat." I said sarcastically.

"I don't want to rush you into something that you're not ready for, I would love for you to be my girlfriend but if it's too soon then that's ok too, we can just date for now and then go from there. I would like to be exclusive even if we are only dating." He led me over to the chairs in the kitchen that were left, they stayed with the apartment so I wouldn't be taking them with me, it was probably a good thing too or we wouldn't have anywhere to sit down.

"I do want to be your girlfriend, it's just I don't want you to get mixed up in all of the shit going on right now. This guy will go to any length he can to get to me and if he knows that we are together he will go after you too. I already feel bad that he has ruined the weekend that you had planned for us and if he were to hurt you I wouldn't be able to hand that." I was quickly loosing my emotions and I needed to get them in check. I sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly when Edward came to stand right in front of me and placed his hand on my shoulders.

"..About that. We all have things in our past that we're not proud of, but what can you do about it? Nothing, yes the police should have done there job in letting you know that he was being released, they also should have kept a better eye on him to make sure that you were not the first person that he went to. You are very tired, why don't you just come to my place for tonight, then tomorrow we will have everything all packed up and moved into the new place. You will be able to get some sleep, and then we can talk more about this in the morning ok?" He was so caring it made me want to cry even more, I just nodded my head and followed him out.

I must have fallen asleep on the way there, because I could feel someone shaking my arm. I slowly started to open my eyes when I did I was met with green ones.

"Hey sleepy, we're here now, come on let's get you up to bed." He said as he helped me out of the car, I was leaning on him for support because I was so tired. I don't remember getting into the elevator or him unlocking the door. The last thing that I remember was him carrying me to the bedroom and placing me on the bed, then taking off my shoes, I felt him kiss my forehead and wish me a peaceful nights sleep.

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_I was walking into the old apartment to finish packing, I had told everyone to give me a few minutes. I wanted to make sure that I had everything, do one last check of the place, when I felt someone come up behind me and put there hand over my mouth so I wouldn't scream._

"_You know you'll never get away from me, you can run all you want but I will find you. Your boyfriend won't help you either. In fact you won't be seeing him anymore because I have already killed him." He told me, I could feel myself shaking in fear. I could feel him moving around and then there was something pressing into my back._

"_I have a gun here, you will walk in front of me and down the stairs, and if you make any motion or sound that will alert someone I won't hesitate to shoot you." He pushed me forward so that we would start walking, I wanted to slam the door closed to alert someone that something was wrong but I didn't want to take the chance of him shooting me or anyone else. I did as he said and walked down the stairs, when we got to the bottom he opened the door where he had a car parked. The windows were tinted so dark that nobody would be able to see in, I knew that I was going to die today. When we got to the car he put me in the driver's side and told me to move over and put my seatbelt on. I had no idea where we were going or what he was going to do with me. He suddenly pulled over to the side of the road and reached into the glove box and pulled out a blindfold._

"_I am going to put this on you now, I don't want you to try anything funny either, remember I have a gun." I nodded my head I looked out the window too see if I noticed anything familiar that I could remember but I didn't. When he had the blindfold on me he started to drive again, we were in the car for what felt like hours when I felt him turn onto a dirt road. Finally he came to a stop and shut off the car; he opened my door for me and grabbed my arm roughly to pull me out of the car. I could hear him unlocking a door, there was complete silence, not even the birds were making a noise. He led me over to a chair and told me to sit down; when I did he tied my hands and feet to the chair and took off the blindfold. When my eyes finally adjusted to the light I looked around to see where I was at, it looked to be a cabin of some sorts. The floor plan was completely open, you could see everything, the only door was what I guess to a bathroom because I didn't see one, and you could see the bed that he had been sleeping on and the kitchen._

"_What do you want James?" I finally asked him, I had been silent this whole time not sure if he was going to go crazy or not._

"_What did I do that was so wrong that you would cheat on me? I mean was I not caring enough, did I not spend enough time with you? What! What did I do?" He was getting more and more upset, I wasn't sure what to do now, and every time I told him that I didn't cheat on him he didn't believe me._

"_I swear to James I never cheated on you, why don't you believe me? It hurts me so much to know that you don't trust me James." I was trying to play it off that he was hurting me, maybe he would feel some sort of compassion, but that backfired on me._

"_You stupid bitch! I trusted you! I would watch you everyday flirt with all of those men, I saw how they lusted after you! And yet you still sit here and tell me that you never cheated, you lying bitch!" He slapped me across the face, I tried to fight back the tears but it was no use, there were flowing down my cheeks. I could hear James mumbling to himself about something, I was worried now, I didn't know what he was going to do. He walked over to the kitchen and pulled out a knife from the block, and started walking back over to me._

"_WH…What are you going to do?" I asked him shakily, I had a sick feeling that he was going to use that one me._

"_Awe, don't look so scared, this won't hurt you to much I promise," he said with a gleam in his eye._

"_Would you really want to hurt me like that James? I thought that you cared about me."_

"_Well I did in the beginning, but now, I just want to watch you suffer like I did. Do you know what they do to you in jail?" I shook my head, I had no idea what jail was like, but I doubted that they had knives in there. "They like to make you think that your safe and then torture you slowly, make you think that it's all in your head while they do it." Great is that what he was going to do to me now? "I think that's what I'm going to do to you, torture you just like they did to me, slowly." He brought the knife up to my skin and slowly started to drag it down my arms, pushing just hard enough to break the skin so the blood would bead up. I was trying so hard not to scream out in pain._

"_Please, please don't do this James, I swear on my life that I never cheated on you, you have to believe me. I'm begging you please don't do this." I was openly sobbing now, pleading with him not to do this. "What do you want me to do? I will do anything, just please stop."_

"_What I want is for you to tell the truth, until you do I will keep doing this, did you know that your blood has a unique color to it?" He was looking at the blade closely, examining my blood I guess. When I was silent to long he dragged the knife over my other arm, I screamed out in pain and he just laughed._

"_Ah yes, there's that sound, the sound of true pain." This man was sick in the head, how could anyone want to watch someone suffer in pain. "Now are you going to tell me the truth?"_

"_Yes, please just stop, anything." I thought I would try it his way and see what would happen, I knew he was going to kill me but maybe this will speed things up a little. "I did cheat on you, I don't know what happened."_

"_See that wasn't so hard now was it," he said just as he brought the knife up to my chest. I screamed as loud as I could hoping that someone might hear me._

"BELLA! BELLA! Come on wake up baby, wake up." I could hear someone sobbing, when I opened my eyes I was meat by scared green ones. "Oh thank god, I was trying so hard to wake you." He said as he held me in his arms while we both cried. I didn't realize that I was screaming out loud, I knew that his room was down the hall and I wondered who else I woke up.

"I'm so, so, sorry that I woke you up, I didn't know that I was screaming out loud. I hope I didn't wake up the neighbors." I said once I had finally calmed down some.

"No, you were yelling in your sleep so I came in here to see what was wrong, I tried to wake you up. I was shaking you and then you started to scream, I didn't know what else to do so I just started to talk to you and try to wake you that way."

"Thank you, I really am sorry that I woke you up."

"You didn't wake me; I was in the living room watching TV when I heard you. Do you want to talk about it?" I shook my head no; I really didn't want to relive that nightmare. "That's fine, if you change your mind I will be here to listen." He tightened his hold on me for a while; I was starting to get sleepy again while he held me. "You should try to get some more sleep; I'll be in the living room if you need me ok?" I shook my head no; I didn't want him to leave yet.

"Um, would you stay in here with me, at least until I fall back to sleep? I mean unless you don't want to that fine I understand." I said looking down at my hands while I twisted them together. I saw Edward place his hand on mine to stop me from fidgeting and put his finger under my chin so that I would look at him.

"I will gladly stay here with you until you fall asleep, nothing is more important than making sure you are safe and comfortable. Let me go shut off the TV and lock up, then I will be in ok?"

"Ok, thank you," I said, he got up from the bed and went to take care of the things he needed to. While he was doing that I went into the bathroom and washed away the tears, I came back into the room and curled up under the covers and waited for Edward to come back. When he did, he was in a pair of sleep pants and no shirt; he climbed into the bed with me and pulled me close to him.

"Goodnight love, try to get some more sleep."

"Goodnight," almost as soon as I said the words I was out for the rest of the night.

AN:

Hope that you all liked this chapter! What's in store for them next?


	5. Chapter 5

**I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT!**

Thank you to all who have reviewed, added me to your favorites, put me on alerts or have read this story, you guys/gals rock!

CHAPTER 5

The first thing I noticed when I woke was how warm I was and that there was something heavy around my waist. I knew instantly that Edward had fallen asleep next to me last night, not that I was complaining. I slowly started to turn around so that I could look at his face, when I did he tightened his hold on me pulling me closer to him.

"Good morning sleepy head," he rasped, it sounded like he just woke up himself. "Sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep in here last night."

"That's ok, I haven't sleep with someone like this in a long time, it was nice." I blushed glad that he couldn't see me.

"The last time I slept with someone like this was about 2 years ago, I was dating a girl at the time and we would occasionally sleep at here place." I knew that I shouldn't feel jealous but I was. "No need to get jealous, she's no longer in my life and I couldn't be happier." He said tightening his hold on me again.

"I'm not," I lied; I could feel his chest moving while he tried to contain his laughter.

"You're a terrible liar baby, but that's ok, I understand, I'm jealous of any guy that got to hold you like this, I can admit it."

"Fine! I admit it made me jealous but I can't help it," I whined. He just laughed softly and kissed the back of my head before releasing me to get up. I whined again because I was so comfy that I didn't want him to move, this time he full out laughed at me, I stuck my tongue out at him just because I could.

"I was perfectly comfortable before you had to go and ruin it you know, where are you going anyway?"

"I was going to see if I had anything in the house to eat, want to join me?"

"Sure, why not," I rolled my eyes; he admitted that he doesn't know how to cook, why would he think that there was anything in his own house? I went into the bathroom and noticed that he had a new toothbrush still in the package for me; I quickly brushed my teeth and did my business.

When I got close to the kitchen I could hear him opening and closing the cabinets, my guess would be that he wasn't finding anything. When I walked into the kitchen he was opening up a pullout drawer that had takeout menus in it.

"Typical bachelor only knows where the takeout menus are. What were you going to make me for dinner this weekend?" I could see him blushing and I really wanted to know what he was thinking about.

"Um, I was going to have my mom help me make something and then take the credit for it," he replied sheepishly. I gasped in mock horror at this.

"How could you do that to your own mother? I bet she would be just absolutely heart broken to hear you say that."

"Um, it was actually her idea." I didn't know what to say to that, it was nice that his mom would do something like that for him and let him take all the credit for it.

"You do remember that I am a culinary grad right? What if I would have asked you a question about the dishes you had made, were you going to B.S. your way threw that?"

"Um…yeah, I kind of forgot about that minor detail, I would have been in the kitchen with her though so I might have known some of the questions." He shrugged his shoulder in response, "What would you like for breakfast? We can order in or go out, your choice."

"How about we grab something on the way back to the old apartment, I want to start working on packing up the last of the things and then get out of there before James comes back." He nodded in understanding and went to get dressed, I went back to the guest room and threw on the clothes that I had from yesterday, they would have to do for now.

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When we pulled up to the apartment I noticed that everyone was already here waiting for me, I started to blush because I hated when the attention is on me.

"It's about time you guys finally got here, I thought I was going to have to come and pull you out of Edward's apartment!" Emmett laughed, I just blushed redder to his comment, and how did he know that I was there anyway.

"Shut it! Just for that comment you don't get any of these delicious pastries from the bakery in town," I stuck my tongue out at him and walked past. I could hear him whining to Edward about it not being fair that I wouldn't feed him after all the help he was giving me, I was starting to feel guilty that he really thought that but then I heard Rose tell him to shut it also because he just had breakfast.

When we got up to my apartment I noticed that the door lock had been jammed, like someone had tried to break. I stopped dead in my tracks, I wasn't sure what to do now, do I call the cops or do I go in and see if anything had been messed with. Most of the items left in there were not important, mostly my clothes, bed, bedding, and other odds and ends. I could hear everyone stop talking behind me.

"Did you forget your keys again; I have mine with me if you need them." Jake said laughing, but I didn't laugh back.

"I think someone tried to break in." I could hear the shakiness in my voice, I felt Edward come up behind me and place his hands on my shoulders turning me around. He pulled me to him, tucking me under his arms, while he ran his hand up and down my back trying to comfort me.

"We need to call the cops, Alice can you do that? Nobody goes in or touches the door; they will want to dust for prints I'm sure." I heard Alice on the phone with the police telling them that there was a suspected break in and giving them the address. I continued to hold on to Edward, he was my safe haven for right now. A short while later the police came to the apartment, they asked how I came to the conclusion that someone had tried to break in, I showed them the door around the lock, I knew that it was not like that last night when we left. They dusted the door for prints just like Edward said they would, they even took our prints so they could rule them out. When they were done, we walked inside, everything seemed to be in order in the foyer but when we got into the living room where all the boxes were left it was completely destroyed. The boxes that were full were now empty and the items laying all over the floor, and the boxes that we hadn't used yet were torn in half. I just started sobbing, I had an idea of who did this but I thought that he would be in jail at least until tomorrow. Unless it was the person he had used to find me, maybe they did this, although I had no idea who that was.

"Miss, do you have any idea who would have done this?" One of the officers asked me, I nodded my head, "Can you tell me the name?"

"His name is James Trakker, he was arrested on Friday for violating his restraining order, he was let out of jail that day from doing 3 years for aggravated assault, we called the cops and they arrested him. I didn't think that he would be out already, I thought that he would at least have to wait until Monday when there was a judge available but I guess not. While he was in jail he managed to find me every time that I moved, I even moved across the country and he still found me, I know that he has someone helping him I just don't know who it would be, he didn't have anyone that he was really close to."

"OK let me call the jail house and see if he has been released yet, then we can go from there." The officer left to make the phone call, when he returned I could tell that it wouldn't be good news.

"I'm sorry to say that James had been released Saturday morning, his bail was paid so he was released being this was a first time offense." I nodded to the officer in understanding, there was nothing that I could do now, he was out and knew that I was moving the only question was did he know where I was moving to?

"You know you will be out of here tonight, I will make sure that I print out a copy of this guys picture and put it up in the lobby of the building and in the community rooms that says if he is seen to call the cops right away and not to let him in the building, that will help with security."

"Ok, let's do that then. Why don't we just finish packing up as much as we can, if there is anything else left then I'll figure something out?" I just wanted to get this done and get out of here as quickly as possible.

"I'll go see if I can get some more boxes that way we can get everything boxed up tonight and be done with it so you won't have to come back ok?" Alice asked me, I told her that was fine. Rose left with her to see if she could find any boxes also. I started to repack everything that was in the living room while the guys started to take boxes down to the trucks. There was always someone in the apartment with me so that I wouldn't be left alone, I felt safe that way but I knew that he would eventually find me.

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Finally about 6 hours later we had everything re-boxed up and over at the new apartment. I still had to clean up the old one, so we divided that amongst us girls, because let's face our guys don't clean; they think they do but well they don't. Once that was done we headed over to the new place and started to unpack, I made a list of items that I would need from the store and sent Jake and Paul to get them for me, Jake knew what items I liked to use the most because he knew how I cooked. I started with the kitchen while Edward set up the dinning room, Emmett and Jasper worked on the living room setting up the TV and other electronics for me. Alice and Rose worked on the bedroom and office for me. It didn't take us long to get everything put away, a lot less time then it did packing up it seemed. Once Jake and Paul returned from the store the rest of the guys went down to help unload the cars and bring everything back up.

"What did you do, send them to buy the entire store?" Emmett asked me as he carried in bags of groceries.

"No just the essentials that I would need, I was going to make dinner for everyone tonight as a thank you."

"You don't need to do that, we would have helped out anyway," Rose said. I just shrugged my shoulder I didn't mind, I felt it was the least I could do for them.

"What are you making baby?" Edward asked as he put his arms around my waist and his chin on my shoulder. I tilted my head so that it was leaning against him and put my back up against his chest.

"Well for starters I'm going to make brochette, then the main course we'll have lasagna, with broccoli rabe with roasted peppers, antipasto pasta salad, and baked tomatoes oregano, and for dessert I will be making blueberry ricotta squares and chocolate dipped orange biscotti."

"So what are you making for everyone else to eat," Emmett asked looking at me smiling; I guess that means he likes the menu then.

"There will be plenty for everyone to eat, trust me on that; I have been around long enough to know how Bella cooks. She'll make enough for all of us to eat and then whatever is left over she will us to set aside lunch for tomorrow, if there is anything beyond that it will go to the local women's shelter."

"Wow really? That's nice of you to do that for them, do you volunteer there also?" Jasper asked he looked at me in awe.

"Yeah, during the holidays I help out there, I mainly serve the food, but I have done the cooking also. I like to help out as much as I can, they rely on it so much and not many people help. The really love it when you bring in cookies and such, it's a real treat for them."

"How do you go about helping out, do you have to talk to someone or do you just walk in?"

"If you're interested I can give you the number of the lady I talk to her name is Didymium, she runs it. I do it because they helped me when I needed it, for a short while I stayed there; it was after the first time that James found me. They don't give out any information on the women and children, who stay there, and you will have to sign a NDA with them also, it's for the protection of the women."

"That's understandable, how often do you help, you said that you do around the holidays are there any other times?" Jasper sounded really into this, it was nice to hear that someone would help them, they really needed it.

"Not that much, I wish I could do more, just when I make meals for a gathering like this, there's usually quite a bit left over but I don't know about this time. I heard that Emmett can eat a lot so I hope there will be leftovers." I looked at Emmett smiling so he would know that I was joking with him.

"That is no lie either, I can eat with the best of them, but hey if it's going for a good cause, then I can give up my left over package for them."

"Trust me man, you won't need to worry about it, that comment you made about buying out the store is true though, she does this every time. They really are in major need of help there, I help there when I can too, I give them advice on legal issues, and if I can I will do a pro-bono for one of the women there. This place is nice but run down because of the funding."

"When Twilight is up and running there will be left over food from that nights menu, do you think they would take it? I mean it will already be cooked all they would have to do is warm it up and serve it the following day, plus I wouldn't have to throw it away, I would hate for it to go to waste. I know that when we first open things are going to be slower so I know there will be quite a bit left over."

"Let me get you Didyme's number she would probably love it but I don't know for sure." I went to get my address book and write down her name and number for her when Edward came up behind me and told me to give him her number also; he like what Jasper was thinking about and wanted to do the same with all of his restaurants.

"This is great you guys, I'm sure she will really love all the help."

"I can't cook to save my life but I'm sure that the women and kids there will need clothes right? They won't be in season, but I have a lot of stuff in the back room just sitting there because nobody wants them, I could donate it to them if they want it." Alice said, I told her that when Jasper calls to have him ask about it, I would think they would, you don't have many options if you didn't bring anything with you. Rose said that she would donate all of her old clothes also; it was great that everyone was trying to help out the women's shelter.

"I'm going to start making dinner now, if anyone wants to help they are more than welcome, I could use another pair of hands." I was looking at Jasper because he looked like he was itching to help me cook. He nodded his head letting me know that he would help. We got to work right away while the others went into the living room to watch some game that was on, Alice stayed in the kitchen with us, and she said that she can't cook but she will keep us entertained.

When everything was done I called them all into the dinning room to eat.

"I would just like to say thank you everyone for helping me out this weekend, I know that most of you don't really know me but it mean a lot to me that you would take time out of your weekend to help. Also I would like to say thank you for the help with the women's shelter that means a great deal to me as well." I sat down after giving them my little speech, everyone started to dig in and I was rewarded with them all telling me how wonderful everything was.

"Ok so you don't need to come into Twilight anymore, this right here I am using as your interview meal, I watched you as you cut up everything and your cooking style. When can you start?" I was floored I never expected him to offer me the job just like that, I mean I knew that I would have to go threw an interview first.

"I didn't make this meal so that I could get the job, don't get me wrong I appreciate the offer, but are you sure that you don't want to look at other applicants first?"

"No, I have been looking at the other apps, and I can say that some of the people who have been doing this for years can't cook anything like this. Where did you learn to cook?"

"Neither of my parents were good at cooking, my dad could grill but not use the stove or a microwave. One day he almost burned the kitchen down; he put the spaghetti sauce in the microwave with the lid still on. My mom burned pots just trying to make water for the noodles, so I started at a very young age, my grandma is the one that I got most of the recipes' from; in fact the lasagna is hers. I would say that I was around 7 years old, I did have my parents help me but I would add the ingredients to the dishes, my mom would stir the sauce or flip whatever over so that I wouldn't get burned but that was about it."

"You were pretty young then, what about your mom, you said that she burned the pots trying to boil water? You must have eaten out a lot then." Rose laughed.

"Yeah everyday, you can only go to the local diner so many times before you have had everything on the menu, after awhile it gets boring, that was when I asked my grandma how to cook."

After dinner was over, Edward, Rose and Emmett went into the kitchen and did the dishes while I pack everyone a container with leftovers for lunch the following day, there was still plenty left over to take to the shelter. I asked Jasper and Edward if they wanted to come with me tomorrow to drop it off, this would also give Didyme a chance to meet them and know that they were good guys if I was bringing them with me, I don't know if they normally allow men in there. Once everything was washed, dried, and put away they all started to get ready to leave for the night. I would be alone in my new apartment for the first time, it was kind of scary, I knew that I was perfectly safe but after finding out earlier that James was out on bail and had tried to get into my apartment I was worried that maybe he would find a way to get in here too. After everyone said goodnight and left I made sure to lock up and put the chain lock in place. I went into the bathroom to take a shower and get ready for bed, when I was done with that I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

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The next few weeks went by fast, nothing more has happened with the James situation, last I heard he was still out on bail. I finally had everything unpacked and in place, I also had everyone over one weekend just to have fun and relax, it was nice having this bigger apartment, everyone could fit comfortably.

Jasper and Edward went with me the following day to the women's shelter to drop off the food, things there went really well, they both set it up for someone from the shelter to come the following morning while the kitchen staff was there to pick up the items from the previous night. Didyme was so happy to have all of the food donated, she was also happy to hear about Alice and Rose donating clothing for the women, the children there would be harder because none of them have kids. She said that it didn't matter either way as long as there were clothes she was happy, some of the women came to her with nothing but the clothes they had on.

I started working for Jasper a couple days later, Twilight wasn't open yet, but I had many things to do in the kitchen, first I washed and put away the pots and pans, I also got things organized in the kitchen for a better work flow. Then we went over the items I would need for the week based on the menu he was using. I told him it was better to go with fresh from the local market then to use frozen, there was a major taste difference, and he said that was fine. I went to the local market and set up accounts with all of the vendors there so that all we would have to do is show them the card and they would know who to charge later that day. Next was the staff, that was a nightmare, I now understood what Jasper was saying when people didn't know how to cook, but there resume said they had been doing it for many years. We did manage to find a few people; Lauren would be a line cook, I wasn't sure how long she would last though because during her interview she was kind of air-headed but she could cook great so I was giving her the chance. There was also Sasha, she would be my sous chef, her interview was great and so was her cooking, There was also Quil, Phil, and Benjamin, they seemed like they knew what they were doing so they were also going to be on the line. We were set to open in a week and things were finally getting done, he had the wait staff picked, the kitchen staff was complete, and the busser's were also picked. I knew that he was getting nervous about not having things done this close to opening, it was a real eye opener for me, and I never knew how much went into opening a restaurant. I realized that there was so much more I needed to learn about the restaurant business.

AN:

Please don't hate me for stopping there, I know that it was kind of a weird place but the next chapter is going to be long, there will be a lot of drama and maybe even a lemon, not to sure yet. Next update won't be for a few days; at the very earliest it will be Saturday night.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: There will be abuse in this chapter! There will not be rape!**

**As always****, I do not own Twilight the great Stephanie Meyer's does. **

CHAPTER 6

The opening week for Twilight went better then what Jasper expected it to. There was still a lot of food left over for the shelter to pick up the following morning. They were very grateful for the donated items, Didyme said that Alice and Rose had also been by and dropped off the clothes for them. She was on her way to Midnight Sun and Crossroads to pick up the food from Edward as well.

I was sitting at home watching Big Brother's season premier, evil Dick and his daughter had just entered the house, I couldn't wait to watch and see what crazy things he did this time, he's my all-time favorite in the series, I knew that it was going to be a great show.

Suddenly there was a knock on my door, I wasn't expecting anyone because I knew they were all at work. I was still nervous about it being James even though he hasn't been around the last few weeks. I turned the TV down and slowly got up to answer the door, whoever it was started to knock again. I made my way to the door to look out the peephole and see who was there, but I didn't see anyone. I waited again watching the peephole to see of someone would knock again but after a minute nobody was there I decided to go back into the living room. Just as I was turning around the knocking started again, I looked out but there was still nobody there, I was getting really scared now. I quickly ran back into the living room where my phone was and called Jake but he didn't answer his phone, I knew that he was at work but wasn't sure if he would be able to answer his phone or not. I tried to call Paul's office phone but it went to voicemail, the knocking continued and I continued to freak out. I decided to call Edward, he would be the closest to me, just as I was hitting the send button the door flew open. I ran to my bedroom, with my phone in hand, and locked the door, then I went into the bathroom and locked that door. I didn't know where else I could hide being on the 6th floor I didn't have any windows that I could climb out of that had a balcony to it. I heard the person in the living room going threw and smashing things, I had completely forgotten that Edward was on the phone until I heard him yelling at me.

"BELLA! BELLA!"

"Edward, someone's here, help me please," I whispered just as my bedroom door was broken open, I knew that I was in major trouble now. My bathroom door was kicked in and there stood James, I was shaking with fear and I dropped the phone when the door few open.

"Did you really think that I wouldn't find you? That moving into a new apartment would stop me from coming after you and finishing what I had started?" I could see in his eyes that he was crazy, he had completely lost touch with reality. I just shook my head, I didn't know what else to do.

"That stupid doorman was easy to get threw, all I had to do was wait until he walked into the office, I quickly shut the door behind him and locked it, then I went in the door for the stairs. I didn't take me long to find out what apartment was your either, people here didn't know who I was so they were willing to give me the info. I must say that the picture of me that day in your apartment doesn't really look like me now does it?" He had dyed his hair black and cut it off, it used to be long and blond, he also had on a baseball cap that somewhat concealed his facial features, it was covering his eyes well.

"What do you want James? Why won't you just leave me alone?" I was crying now, I was terrified and I didn't know what I could do to get out of here, he was standing in the doorway and it was my only escape.

"I want you to come with me, just like you were supposed to, we're going to leave this area and live someplace else, just the two of us, nobody around to tell us we can't be together." I didn't want to go anywhere with him, but I didn't have a choice in the matter right now, I nodded my head and asked if I could pack a bag to take with me, he said that was fine. I made my way to the closet trying to think if there was anything I could use as a weapon in here, but I don't think that a heeled shoe would do much damage to him. I was stalling and I knew it, I knew that my phone was in the bathroom maybe I could get to it and somehow call for help. I was making my way there, just as I was about to go in James got off the bed and hit me from behind, knocking me to the ground. I fell on my hands and knees, I wasn't sure if I should get up or just stay down, I decided to stay down, and sat on the floor. He started to come after me again, this time I noticed what he had in his hands it was a book from my living room, he proceeded to hit me with it, hitting my arms and legs, he managed to hit me on the side of the head knocking me out.

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I had no idea how long I had been out, when my eyes adjusted to the lighting I noticed that I was in a basement. It smelled moldy, there was only a small amount of light coming from the door by the stairs so you couldn't really see anything. I could hear the water running threw the pipes and it sounded like someone was walking around above me, there was more than one person up there I could tell. I had no idea where I was or who was up there but I didn't want to alert anyone that I was awake yet. I tried to move my arms but they were tied behind me and around a pipe, my feet were also tied together, there was no way that I could get my hands untied without some sort of sharp object to cut the rope with, the more I moved the tighter the rope got around my wrists. My throat was dry and my head was throbbing, I tried to look around but there was nothing anywhere close to me that I could use to cut threw the rope. I could hear someone walking closer to the steps, the door opened then and two men came down the stairs.

"I see sleeping beauty is finally awake, now we can have our fun!" James said as he came and stood in front of me.

"Why? Why are you doing this James, why not just leave me alone and go one with your life? You could be long gone by now I bet, nobody would know where you went or who you were if you had changed your name, I mean you changed your hair and nobody recognized you." I was trying to get him to leave, even if it would mean that I would be constantly looking over my shoulder, I would still be alive then.

"No! I want you to suffer just like I did in jail. I want you to experience real pain," he said to me with a gleam in his eyes. He cut the tape that was around the pipe, but it still left my hand tied together, he grabbed me by the arms and lifted me up, my feet were still tied together so I couldn't walk, he carried me by my arms and set me on a table that I hadn't noticed was there, he tied each of my arms to the table and then untied my feet. I started kicking as much as I could, unfortunately that didn't work to well in my favor, he punched me on the leg just above my knee to stop me from kicking, then he tied my legs to the table. I was positioned like an X on the table, next he taped my mouth shut.

"I don't want to have to listen to whine and scream while I have my fun with you."

He left me there with the other man, who was just watching the whole thing, I didn't know what his involvement with this was. I just looked at him pleading with my eyes for him to help me but he just looked at me with an evil sneer on his face.

"Sorry little girl but you will get no help from me, I love to watch the torture," he said. When James came back he had a variety of knives with him, I didn't want to know what he was going to do with those. He placed them down on a table near by, I noticed that the table also had what looked like a whip along with the knives he had.

"I'm going to use this one you, it will be painful that's why I have taped your mouth shut, I know you will scream once this hits your skin." He did just that, he hit me repeatedly; over my legs, arms, and stomach, I could feel it ripping away my clothing and skin. I started to get lightheaded when I could smell the blood leaving my body, I tried to breath out of my mouth but it didn't work, I just let the black consume me I didn't want to be awake for any of this.

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I could smell something nasty under my nose, I started gagging instantly but with my mouth taped it made it even worse. When I opened my eyes I was looking right at James and his friend. They both has smiles on there face and I knew that my torture wasn't anywhere close to over yet.

"Nice of you to join us, are you not a fan of blood?" I shook my head no, maybe he would spare me but he didn't he continued just like he had before I had passed out, but this time he was going for the knives. Just as he grabbed a knife off the table beside me there was a loud crash from upstairs. I was silently thanking whoever was up there for temporarily relieving me of my torture. Both James and his friend took off for the stairs leaving me alone, I was shivering now because of the cold and the blood loss. I could hear them upstairs fighting, I had no idea who it was but I was hoping that when it was done and over they would check the basement to see if anyone was down here.

What felt like hours later there was a gun shot, then dead silence, suddenly the door was flung open and someone was running down the stairs, I couldn't see who they were until they were right in front of me.

"Edward," I whispered just as everything around me went black again.

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I could hear someone talking and a beeping sound in the back, where was I?

_Beep, Beep, Beep_

Someone need to turn that noise off, it was killing my head.

_Beep, Beep, Beep_

I tried to open my eyes but they were just to heavy, it was probably a good thing anyway, I didn't want to wake and have him torture me anymore.

_Beep, Beep, Beep_

"Ugh," Someone turn that damn thing off already! The beeping was getting louder and faster now, it was killing my head, I already have a nasty migraine.

"Help please," I was barely able to whisper out, but someone must have heard me, I could feel someone's hand on my arm lightly squeezing it.

"Bella, baby, can you hear me? It's me Edward, your in the hospital right now, if you can hear me squeeze my hand, don't try to talk right now ok." I squeezed his hand letting him know that I could hear him, I could feel the tension leave his body. "I've been so worried about you, when you called and said someone was in your apartment I got there as fast as I could, I called the cops on the way but you were already gone when we got there. I'm so, so glad that you're ok baby, I've missed you so much." His voice was heavy with emotions, it sounded like he was fighting back the tears. I could feel myself falling asleep again, I knew that I was safe for now so I didn't fight it.

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I heard the door open then, Edward told the person that I could hear him, but I hadn't opened my eyes yet. I was still so tired, I felt like I could sleep for a few more days. The person who I guessed must have been a doctor told him that it was because of the meds that I wasn't opening my eyes or talking yet, I could hear him but my mind was still clouded with the meds. The door closed then and I could feel my heart beating like crazy, I didn't need the monitor to tell me that, I was scared to be alone right now.

"Calm down baby, I'm still here, I'm not going anywhere I promise, don't worry." He placed his hand back in mine, I gave him a squeeze in thanks, I could feel myself almost instantly calm down. "I know that you have many questions and I will answer them when you are more alert but right now you just need to rest, try to go back to sleep love, I'll be right here when you wake back up." He kissed my temple, I nodded to him and felt myself drifting back to sleep.

The next few times I woke up were kind of fuzzy, I remember waking up panicked that I was alone, but then Edward would place his hand on mine to let me know that he was there and I would fall back to sleep. I was finally able to open my eyes what felt like days later, I could feel Edward beside me, he had his hand on mine letting me know that he was still here with me. I turned to look at him, he had days worth of stubble, it looked like he hadn't shaved in weeks, his hair was messier then usual he must have been running his hands threw it or pulling on it in frustration. Next I noticed that his eyes had purple like bruising under them, he hadn't sleep much it looked like, his clothes were all wrinkly too, he was asleep so I didn't want to wake him up yet. When I tried to move my arm I felt a sharp pain and a tugging, I looked down and noticed that I had an I.V in my arm, I hated needles.

"Ugh," I said and then started to cough, my throat was so dry and sore.

"Try not to talk to much love, let me get you some water ok?" When I turned to look at him I could have cried, his eyes were so green, they were filled with so many emotions, the main one being concern. It was so nice to see his face and hear his voice. I nodded to him that I wanted water and would wait until he handed it to me with a straw before I tried to talk again.

"How long have I been out?" I rasped out.

"You have been here for about a week now." There was something he wasn't telling me, I waited a minute to see if he would tell me but he didn't so I knew that I was going to have to ask.

"How long have I been gone?" I was kind of afraid to know that answer this. I saw him take a deep breath and then let it out slowly.

"It took us about a week to find you, when we did you were pretty out of it, I don't know how long you were out while you were in that basement." I could hear the sadness in his voice, I nodded my head, I went to take a deep breath and was met by a sharp pain in my sides. I cried out in surprise and pain, Edward asked me what was wrong and I just pointed to my sides.

"You have several broken ribs love, that's why you are in so much pain, they had to keep you sedated for a few days because one of the ribs punctured your lung, but there were able to repair it. You also have several lacerations on your arms, legs, and the bottoms of your feet, you won't be able to walk for a while I'm afraid."

I noticed then that I was in some pain but not a whole lot, when I looked at my arms they were covered in gauze so where my legs and feet when I looked under the covers. Just then the door opened and I jumped causing me to cry out again in pain, my ribs were now throbbing. The man in a lab coat came over to me and Edward, he put his hand on Edwards shoulder and patted it lightly, I wondered how he knew who this guy was.

"Bella, I would like you to meet my father Carlisle, dad this is Bella my girlfriend." It was weird to hear him call me his girlfriend still. I tried to smile but I think it came out as a grimace because of the pain I was in.

"I didn't mean to scare you Bella, as you know my name is Carlisle, I'm also your doctor. Would you like me to get you something for the pain?" I nodded that I would because it was rather hard to breath right now. He walked out the door and came back a minute later with a syringe for me.

"This is morphine, it's going to go right into your I.V. I'm not going to put another hole in your arm don't worry." He said lightly, I tried again to smile but I don't think it worked I was still in to much pain. Almost instantly I could feel the relief the meds were giving me. "Ok, it that better now?" I nodded yes.

"Good, has Edward here told you what injuries you have sustained?" I nodded, "Good, I want you to take it easy when you're released, it's going to be about 6-8 weeks before your ribs heal properly, that means no lifting anything heavier then a gallon of milk until you are cleared. Also with the cuts on your arms and legs that you have, the bandages will need to be changed twice a day and ointment applied so that they don't get infected and it will also reduce any scaring you may have. The cuts on the bottoms of your feet will need to be cared for at least three times a day, I'm also going to give you an oral antibiotic to take four times a day. You are going to have to stay off your feet for the next 2-3 weeks until they are completely healed, that mean you will be in a wheelchair to get around. I know that you live alone, Edward told me, However you are going to need lots of help while you're recovering, so someone will need to be with you at all times for the next 6 weeks minimum." He gave me a pointed look, he must have heard how stubborn I can be, I nodded my head that I would have someone with me at all times. I had no idea who I was going to ask but I didn't have to wonder long.

"She can stay with me, her apartment is being redone right now anyway due to the damage from that asshole. Jake is working on a big case with Paul so they will be at the office for the majority of the time unfortunatly. I didn't know who else to call, I just took some of the clothes from your apartment and moved them up to mine. We can stop by on the way and pick up anything else that you might need once you are released."

"Ok, I guess, um where is Jake and Paul now? And most importantly when am I getting out of here1" I wanted to laugh but I knew that it would put to much strain on my ribs so I just smiled as wide as I could.

"Jake and Paul are in court right now, they had some meeting with the other attorney? I have no idea how that stuff works sorry, but they did say they would be here later to see you now that you're awake." Edward told me and then looked at his father.

"As for you getting out of here, I would say that as long as you rest for the rest of the day then I will come and check on you again before my shift ends, if everything is still good, and your CT scan's are good then I will let you go home tonight."

"Ok, thanks for everything then Dr. Cullen, I wish it were under different circumstances that I was meeting you." I started blushing, I hated that I had to meet Edward's dad this way it was embarrassing.

"Please call me Carlisle, it was nice to meet you as well. I will be back later to check on you, if you're released tonight I will be following you home Edward to make sure that she gets set up ok."

"No problem dad, thanks again," he said as he gave his dad a hug goodbye.

"I'm sure you have more questions for me but I know that the police want to talk to you also, just so they can get your side of the story."

"When do I have to talk to them?"

"They wanted me to call them as soon as you woke up, but I wanted to give you time to adjust first before calling them. I was going to call them now while your still here so if need be I can have dad tell them to fuck off."

"Ok then, let's get this over with." He went over to the phone in my room and called the number he had on a card, he told the person that I was awake and could have visitors for a little while, but I was to be resting. When he was done he came back over to me and sat down, I wanted to ask him so many questions but I knew that I had to wait until the police were here.

About 30 minutes later there was another knock on my door, this time I didn't jump but I could feel my body tense up. Edward went to the door and let the people in, there were 2 uniformed officers, one male and one female.

"Glad to see you awake Miss. Swan, my name is Sam, I'm the detective in charge of your case, and this is my partner Emily. Can you tell us what happened that day?" I told the detective what happened that day and the time before he was in jail, when I was done I was mentally and physically exhausted. It took me about 2 hours to get everything out that they needed from me, I wanted so badly to ask them questions but I was just to tired. I asked Edward if he could call the nurse so that I could get something for the pain, when she came in and gave me the dose I drifted off to sleep almost instantly.

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I could hear Edward talking to his dad, he was asking him how the scan's looked and if I would be ok to go home tonight. He also told him about the police coming to talk to me, Carlisle said that it was a good idea to have them come in while I was still in the hospital so that incase I had a panic attack I could be treated right away. He told Edward some things that he should watch out for, but I couldn't really hear him, I think they knew I was waking up so they stopped there conversation.

"Hey sleepy head, are you actually awake this time?" Edward asked me with a smile on his beautiful face, I just looked at him confused I had no idea what he meant by this time. "Did you know that you sometimes talk in your sleep?" I instantly went red, my mother had told me that I talked in my sleep but I didn't believe her.

"My mom once told me, but I didn't believe her, what embarrassing things did I say?" I groaned.

"Nothing bad, you just called for me a couple of times that's it."

"I don't remember dreaming about anything," I said, I didn't know if that had anything to do with it or not. I tried to shrug my shoulder but it hurt to do that so I stopped.

"Ok Bella, as I was just telling Edward your scan's came back fine, you can go home tonight if you want." I nodded my head rapidly, only to cause me to get sick to my stomach. Carlisle laughed lightly, "you might not want to do that for a little while yet, with having a concussion your balance is going to be off and you're going to get sick to your stomach moving quickly also. I'm going to send home something for pain called Norco, just take one tablet every 4 to 6 hours as needed. I'm also going to send you something for the dizziness called Meclizine, 1 tab three times a day. I know that you won't be up moving around a lot right now but if you need it take it, the side effects on both of these are drowsiness so when you take them your going to get tired. You need as much rest as possible anyway, it will help you heal faster. Make sure with the Norco that you have food in your stomach, I'm also sending some cream for the cuts that will help to heal them and also minimize the scarring."

"I have a change of clothes for you also, I wasn't sure when you were going to get released so I had Jake stop by your apartment and pick up some comfy clothes for you."

"Thank you, how soon before I can get out of here? No offense to you but I really hate hospitals and needles."

"That's quite alright dear, let me just finish up with my last patient and by then the nurse's should have your paperwork done, then we can all get out of here." He patted my hand lightly and left to give my chart to the nurse. I was glad to be going home so quickly, I would think that they would keep me longer but maybe because I would have a doctor on call they were letting me go.

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Awhile later Carlisle came threw my door, I was so happy to see him, it meant that I could go home finally.

"Does this mean that I can go home now!" I was so excited. I had already changed clothes, the outfit Jake picked out was definitely comfortable it was yoga pants and sweatshirt, he also had a hairbrush and toothbrush in there for me. Carlisle had brought in a wheelchair for me to use for the next couple of weeks while I was at home also. Edward went to bring the car around while Carlisle wheeled me out of the hospital.

"I know that you don't really feel up to talking right now after just talking with the police, but it might be a good idea to see a counselor about what happened, many people go threw anxiety or panic attacks after an event like this."

"I have a therapist already from the first time James did this to me, I had dropped down to only seeing her once a month because he was in jail and things were better, when he attacked me again I started to see her once a week. I still plan to see her now, her name is Siobhan, she's great and I really like her."

"Good, that was actually the person I was going to recommend that you see, she is great with trauma victims. When we finally get you settled in at Edwards we can go over what happened with you ok? I don't want to talk about it today only because you had to deal with the police earlier, so tomorrow afternoon I will come over and then we can talk about what happened with you is that ok?"

"Yes, I have been wanting to know what happened, but I knew that nobody could say anything until I talked to the cops first. Thank you for taking care of me while I was in here and while I am at home." He bend down so that I could give him a hug while we waited for Edward to bring the car up.

AN:

Up next we find out what happened to Bella while she was out. Did they catch James?


	7. Chapter 7

**I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT!**

CHAPTER 7

I had been home now for a couple days and it wasn't easy either. Edward had to pick me up and put me in the wheelchair or in bed. I had tried once to walk on my feet, yeah not a good idea, as soon as I put any weight on then it was instant pain, I got yelled at by Carlisle and Edward for not telling them that I needed to get up. Now that I was finally "settled" I wanted to know what happened in the basement.

"Can I ask you something?" I turned to look at Edward, he was hesitant to answer me, but nodded anyway. "How did you find me? Who was it that was shot?"

"Ok, um, well, when we got to your apartment James had already taken you, we had no idea where he would have gone. The cops had to look up you past encounters with him unfortunately that didn't help us either. They dug up everything that they could get on the guy, past cellmates, everything that was in his name, that's how we found you he had a house that he was renting. When they went there originally nobody was home or at least that's what they thought. They kept a visual on the place in case he was to show up and he did about 3 days later. There was another man with you and him. They couldn't just go in; at least that's what they told me. I don't know the specifics of how they got in or what they did, but I was there that day they finally went in, when everything was done I ran to the basement to get you but you were already passed out. While you were in the hospital they had to take you back right away for surgery because you had a rib that had punctured your lung. That went well; they kept you in ICU for a couple of days, and then placed you in the room that you woke up in. You were in and out of conscience for a while, my dad said that it was because of the pain meds they gave you, they wanted to keep you in as little pain as possible because of all the damage done and because of your rib, and they wanted to give it a good chance to heal first. You were out of it for about a week I think before you finally started to come around. At first you would open your eyes and that was it, you would moan in pain once in awhile but nothing more than that. I was getting worried because they had lowered your dose so that you would start to wake up more but the first day was the same as the others, nothing. Then the second day you woke up for about a minute, you moaned and called for me once then went back to sleep once I put my hand on yours. Your heart would go crazy anytime the door would open, or when someone was touching you other then your hand."

"I don't remember any of this, the only thing I remember is waking up thinking that I was alone until I felt your hand on mine. I think that was my biggest worry was being left alone, it still is. Who was it that got shot at the house? I remember hearing a gun shot and then nothing, after that I remember the door opening then everything went black."

"The guy who was shot, his name was Lonnie, he had been the one James used to keep an eye one you, that's how he knew where you were every time you moved. They found a tape recording made by him of you also, when they searched his house, they also found multiple pictures of you. They think that he was sending them to James in jail also, he was the only on to visit him."

"I don't even know anyone named Lonnie and he didn't look familiar to me either. What happened to James, did they get him or is he still out there?" Edward took in a huge breath letting it out slowly, I could tell that he didn't want to answer me; I knew then that he was still out there.

"Unfortunately he did get away, but they are still trying to get him. When they do he will go to prison this time, when the cops went in to the house he threw Lonnie at them and slipped out the back window on the second level. I haven't heard anymore about him yet, sorry. I can call the detective and see if he knows anything more if you like."

"Please, I want to know what is going on at all times when it's concerning him. I need to know if he is still in the area, what if he tries to come after me again. He already knows where I live; I really need to look into a new place to live also. I will pay you for the repairs that were needed to my apartment, once that's finished and I can move around more I'll have to start…" Edward placed his hand over my mouth to shut me up.

"Now listen and listen closely ok?" I nodded my head that I was listening; he still had his hand over my mouth so that I couldn't talk. "You. Are. Not. Going. To. Move. Do you understand me?" He said everything slowly like he was speaking to a child, I nodded that I understood him. "Good, now what is going to happen is when your place has been repaired, which you will NOT be paying for under any circumstances, you can box your stuff up and put it in a storage unit if you want. However you will not be moving from this building, you will be moving in here with me, permanently." He uncovered my mouth so that I could answer him now. I didn't really know what to say, I did like staying here with him but was it too soon? Did he really want me here or was it just to baby sit me?

"Yes I really do want you here with me; I have loved having you here even though it's only been a couple of days. I am not babysitting you, you are my girlfriend and I want you to live with me, as for it being to soon, I don't know I personally don't think that it is. If you're worried about James finding you don't, I will protect you, if I have to leave there will be a guard outside of the door while I am gone. I love you and I don't want anything to happen to you again." I threw my arms around him and hugged him as tight as I could even though it hurt to do so. He gently picked me up and placed me sideways on his lap so that I was more comfortable.

"Did I really say that out loud? I love you too. You have no idea how scared I was that he was going to kill me and I would never get the chance to tell you that. I do want to move in here, but I'm afraid that he is going to find me and then go after you to get to me. It would kill me if I lost you to him." I was trying so hard not to cry but it wasn't working, the more I thought about James going after Edward the worse the scenario I would come up with.

"Don't worry about me ok, he can try to hurt me, it's you that I worry about. When we couldn't find you I was yelling at everyone, even my parents and they had nothing to do with this. When we finally found you and they had taken you into the hospital I would not leave. The nursing staff told me that I couldn't stay in your room so I would sit right outside your door on the floor and wait until they would let me. Eventually the nurses got sick of me and let me stay in your room, that and my dad talked to them." He laughed, I could see him sitting out there waiting and annoying the nurses until he got his way.

"You know that annoying the nursing staff isn't going to help you any right?" I asked him and he just shrugged his shoulder, he didn't seem to care too much.

"Yeah but you know it worked this time. Do you have anymore questions about what's happened?" I shook my head, "Ok then, I'm going to go call the detective and see if he can stop by and talk to us ok?" I nodded, I was starting to get sleepy and I needed to take my pain meds, so I wheeled into the kitchen to find something to eat. I noticed that his kitchen was well stocked this time, the last time he didn't even have food here. I reached up to grab a yogurt from the fridge and was instantly met with pain, it was hard to remember that I could only reach so far and being in the wheelchair really limits me. I must have cried out in pain but didn't realize it when Edward came running into the room.

"What, what happened? Are you ok? Do you want me to call my dad?"

"No…not yet…give…me…a…minute," I wheezed out, I tried to slow my breathing down so that I could talk. Edward waited patiently for me to catch my breath, when I finally did I told him that I was just trying to reach for the yogurt so that I could take my pain meds. He reached up and grabbed the yogurt for me and then got a spoon also, he left the kitchen and came back a minute later with my pain meds and handed them to me with a glass of milk.

"Thank you," I said, I was really grateful that he was doing all of this for me but it was frustrating that I couldn't do it myself. I'm used to being on my own; since my parents had passed I was the only one.

"Hey don't be so down on yourself ok. I know that you aren't used to having someone take care of you, but you had better get used to it, I'm here and I'm not going anywhere ok." He had crouched down in front of me while he was talking so that he would be eye level and I had to look at him. I could see the sincerity in his eyes so I nodded.

"It's hard though, I've been on my own since I was 19 and even before that, while I was growing up I took care of the meals, both mom and dad worked so I also took care of the cleaning. They were great parents don't get me wrong, they took care of the bills, when it was time for the grocery shopping I went with so that the right items were bought. I didn't mind, I liked going to the store with my mom when it was grocery shopping, now clothes shopping of any kind and I am so against it. Did you know that your sister still keeps trying to get me to go with her?"

"Well you don't have to worry about that then for the next few weeks." I rolled my eyes at him he clearly didn't know his sister very well. There was a knock at the door just then so Edward went to answer it. I rolled myself into the living room to see who was here; it was none other than Alice herself with Jasper, Em, and Rose in tow.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" I was wondering why they were all here together; did they know that Edward had called the detective?

"Love, I called them to come over so that when the detective gets here he can fill us all in on what is going on. We will all be here to help you threw this ok?" I nodded. We sat around and talked until the detective was do to show up.

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Around 3pm the Detectives Sam and Emily showed up, Edward led them into the living room so that we could all be present and hear what he had to tell us.

"Glad to see that you are out of the hospital Miss. Swan, how are you feeling?" Detective Emily asked me as she came into the room.

"Better, I'm still in a bit of pain," Edward snorted at that, I just looked at him and narrowed my eyes telling him to shut it. "Shut it you!" I told him and then looked back at Detective Emily, "I have times that are worse then others but I'm managing. Plus it help that Edward takes such good care of me." I felt him kiss the top of my head in gratitude. "So shall we get started? I would really like to know what happened while I was out of it."

"Well I'm sure that you know James did get away, we have the house he was renting under 24 hour surveillance, as of right now he has not been back there. There is no car registered in his name so we don't know what he is driving. We have also been monitoring his credit card activity, but there hasn't been anything on it either. Did you know a man named Lonnie?" I shook my head no, "he was also in the house with James, when they came up the steps James threw him at us so that he could get away, and unfortunately he was shot and did not survive. We have not been able to make any connection as to how he knows James, I know that we don't have a lot of information to tell you right now but we are still looking into things. It took us a bit to get to you because when we first found the house nobody was there. He showed up about 3 days later at night, it looked like he was carrying you while Lonnie opened the doors. Lonnie was the one who would leave the house to get supplies they needed, he didn't really get much just food. I know that you are worried about him coming back for you but I really don't think that he will we are watching the house he is renting and here as well. He has not turned up at either place; we also are watching the train stations and airports."

"So basically you're saying you have no leads and no clue where to go right?" Emmett asked with annoyance, I could feel it too, this was total bullshit.

"Yes we are unfortunately; I wish that we had some idea about what his motives are." Sam said, "Do you know if he was taking any drugs? What about his parents, were they around while you were dating?"

"No he told me his parents were dead, he didn't tell me how they died and I didn't ask because if he wanted me to know he would have told me. As for the drugs he wasn't taking them that I was aware of."

"Well his parents are not dead, in fact they haven't seen him in almost 4 years, they said that one day he just up and left no note or anything at all. They did say that he was in and out of a rehab close to home but he hadn't been using in awhile." Emily told us, this was news to me.

"He never said anything to me about being in rehab, he never really talked about his past much, when I would bring it up he would change the subject. I just thought that it was sore spot for him and didn't want to talk about it so I didn't bring it up anymore."

"I don't think that he wanted anyone to know who he was, when we checked into the rehab place he would always ask to be called Charles."

"Was that his middle name?" Rose asked.

"No his middle name was Henry, he hated that name. I don't know what his parents names were though."

"His father's name is Aro and his mother's is Irena, they seemed to be nice people from what we could tell when we met them. They were worried about him, he had just turned 18 when he left home so they couldn't call the police and report him, not to say they didn't try. The report said that they were worried that he might have been taken but because he was of legal age they just listed him as a runaway. There was an investigation done but he was never found until now."

"So he knows how to stay under the radar then, if he has been doing this since he was 18, he's now what 24 years old?" Jasper asked.

"Actually he's 28," Sam told us. I was shocked to hear that because he told me that he was 21 when we met. We continued to talk for awhile longer, they were going to keep surveillance on the apartment here and his house along with the airports and train stations. If he was going to be leaving the country we would know.

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"Why not? I will be able to walk hopefully today." I was pleading with him to let me go outside and walk around for a little while, I was getting cabin fever. "Plus I need to return to work, Jasper has to be going out of his mind right now."

"IF and only if my dad says that you can start walking then we can go for a short and I mean short walk, you have to remember that its been almost 3 weeks since you have walked, your legs are going to tire out quickly. Jasper's not worried about you not being there right now, he knows that you want to come back and you will but it will be short shifts at first. Let's just see what dad says when he gets here ok love, I don't want you to tire yourself out right away, and you need to work up to it first."

"Fine, but I want to do something, even if it's only to walk to the elevator a few times, how else am I going to get my strength back?" Edward just rolled his eyes at me, but he wasn't saying no yet we had to wait for Carlisle to clear me first. He was going to be coming over after his shift ends tonight; personally I was excited to be out of this chair and being able to do things on my own. I knew that I had another 3-5 weeks before I could really do much, my ribs were still giving me problems but I didn't need to take the pain meds as much now so I knew that I was healing.

Around 7pm that night Carlisle came over to look me over, I was waiting in the living room for him. I knew that he was going to want to look at my ribs also and make sure that none of the cuts were infected.

"So I hear that you want to run a marathon later tonight huh?"

"Not a marathon just walk around a little bit, I have to get my strength back somehow, and I need to get back to work. This sitting around all day doing nothing is driving me crazy, I can't do anything!"

"Well how do your ribs feel? Are you still taking the Norco regularly?"

"No I only take maybe 3 a day now, when I move the wrong way it bothers me but just sitting here doing nothing I'm fine. First thing in the morning I need to take one, usually right after getting out of bed seems to still be the most difficult for me."

"It's going to be that way until they are completely healed I'm afraid. What about any of your cuts, do they bother you at all?"

"They itch like crazy, some days I want to just tear off my skin to make it stop, but I've been putting on that cream still 3 times a day. Most of them are gone and didn't leave any scars behind."

"That's good, I'm going to take a look at them also, but how about I start with your feet I know that you want to walk and you might be able to later." He sat down on the chair that Edward had brought in for him and started to unwrap my feet, he didn't really say anything; he would just run his hands over them and hum a little.

"These look good, why don't you try to stand and see how it feels then we can go from there." I made sure the breaks were locked and started to pull myself into a standing position, as soon as I put my feet down on the ground I wanted to cry. It was hard, they were sore and stiff, and I knew that I was going to have trouble when I first started to walk but I didn't think I would be in this much pain.

"What you're feeling right now it the new skin stretching out; it's going to be painful. Once you are up and walking more it won't be so bad, the first few times it's going to be very painful. What you can do to help stretch the skin is flex your feet until it's too much and then point them until the pain subsides, keep doing this for about 10 minutes at a time. It's not going to take away the pain completely when you stand but it will make it easier. As for running that marathon, sorry to say it won't happen today, but you can do so some walking, I suggest you use crutches to help you walk until you have more balance. Short walks though, start with just walking around the house for the next couple of days, then if you're doing ok you can walk to the elevator and back a few times or to the end of the hall. Keep doing that for a couple of days, then you can increase more if you're still doing ok. If at any point while you're on your feet other then when you take the first couple of step do you feel any pain you need to stop. For example if your walking fine with little or no pain and then you start to notice that the pain is getting worse you need to stop and sit down, you are over doing it. I know that you want to get back to work as soon as you can but I can tell you right now it's not going to be for another 4-5 weeks before that happens. Your ribs need time to heal first and with the quick moving and bending and heavy lifting that you do it's going to be too much. I will be back to check on you at the end of the week ok?"

"Yeah, I can walk around but only in the house for now, and then in a couple of days I can walk to the end of the hall, if I'm still doing ok then I can walk further. Got it, now can I stand up for a while, like if I wanted to make dinner or lunch?"

"That should be fine, but again if you start to feel pain you need to sit down." Edward was sitting right next to me the whole time so I knew that he was going to be watching me closely to make sure that I didn't overdue it. Carlisle said that he wanted to check the rest of my cuts next and then he would check my ribs.

"Let's see about the other cuts, you said that some of them were gone completely but some were still there, I want to see the ones that are still here first to make sure that they didn't get infected. Are you still taking the antibiotics?" I nodded my head, he said that he was giving me a months worth to take because of the cuts on my feet, it's a place that bacteria like to grow he said. I still had one more week left and then I would finally be done with those.

"Good, you should be about done with them in the next week. Keep taking them; I don't want to take any chances with your feet especially now that you will be walking around. That fact that your other cuts are itching I hate to say is a good thing that means they are healing." He was looking at each cut and would run his hand along them; I didn't understand why he was doing this so I asked him. "I like to see how they feel, it tells me how well they are healing most cuts if they are going to leave a scar will be raised throughout the healing process, most of yours are not raised any longer so they shouldn't leave a scar. Unfortunately there are some that may because they are still raised; those are the ones that were deeper." He moved on to my ribs then, he said they were healing nicely and when he listened to my lungs he said that everything looked good. I was so happy that I could finally get out of this chair and walk around; I knew that it was going to be painful but I could live with that. Carlisle said that he couldn't stay because Esme was at home waiting for him with dinner; I thought that was sweet of her.

Once Carlisle left I started to stand on my own again, Edward was right there next to me so that I could hold on to him, I didn't have the crutched yet to help me so he was going to do. I wanted to walk around as much as I could so I told him that I was going to walk around the apartment just so that I could stretch the skin. I had been walking for about 10 minutes when there was a knock at the door, I told Edward to walk us over there and he did. When he opened the door it was Em and Rose, Emmett was shocked to see me up and walking and Rose was happy that I was able to walk around now.

"So how does it feel to have your legs back?" Emmett asked me.

"I'm so glad I can finally start to do things on my own again, I hate having to rely on people. No offence but I'm used to taking care of myself and others, not having someone take care of me."

"But I love to take care of you," Edward pouted.

"Yes but you need to get back to work, I know that." I reached up to touch the side of his face with my hand, he was so loving and caring with me, I would really miss it once he went back to work.

"I see you're kicking me out! And here I thought that you loved me," he was trying to act like he was hurt but I knew better.

"Yep," I said popping the 'p'. Edward shook his head at me and went to talking with Emmett, still trying to act like he wad hurt but the smile on his face gave him away.

We continued to talk for a couple of hours before they headed home; I decided that I was going to go to bed also. I was getting tired from the walking around but I didn't want to admit it to Edward yet. He gave me a kiss goodnight and said that he would be in after awhile. Once my head hit the pillow I was out.


	8. Chapter 8

**I Do Not Own Twilight, The great Stephanie Meyers does, I just like to play with her characters!**

CHAPTER 8

As the weeks went by it was getting easier to walk, my ribs weren't hurting as much and the cuts were healed, some did leave scars like Carlisle thought but there wasn't anything that could be done about it. I had one more week to go and then hopefully Carlisle would clear me so that I could go back to work.

Jake and the rest of my friends would come over at least once a week to check on me. It was a nice change; sometimes we would go out to the park just down the road and sit on the bench to talk. I had also gotten to know Edward's family more, they were all great. Now that I was walking more Alice was pestering me to go shopping with her and Jake was helping her.

"Jake you know that I hate to shop," I was interrupted by a screech from Alice.

"What do you mean you hate to shop? How can anyone hate shopping? That's got to be some sort of crime!"

"The only shopping I like to grocery shopping, even when I would go with my mom. Jake yells at me too so I don't want to hear it from you, he's the one who does the shopping for me."

"I do then I don't have to listen to her bitch about the price. If it were up to her she would be in jeans and t-shirts, not that there's anything wrong with that, but sometimes you need to dress up. I have to make sure to take the tags off before I give them to her, other wise she will return them."

"That's because you spend 100 dollars on a shirt! I could to another store and get 5 shirts for the same cost that you spent on that one, it's called being smart with my money. Besides there's nothing wrong with not having designer label clothes, and I happen to like my shirts that have sayings on them." I stuck my tongue out at him, he thought that they were funny so why did he always have to hate on them.

"I like you Jake, what do you do just buy her clothes and then put them in her closet?" Alice was getting ideas and I wasn't going to let that happen.

"NO, Alice absolutely not! Jake's shopping is bad enough, you're not helping him."

"Yes that's the only way, if she goes with then she complains about the price or says she doesn't like something when she really does. I've known her my whole life, she never asks for what she wants, oh and don't get started on Christmas gifts, she refuses goes bat shit crazy when you buy her anything. See its ok for her to buy you something but not her, she also refuses to celebrate her birthday." I was so going to hurt him and his big mouth.

"You don't celebrate your birthday?" Alice was seriously confused now, "how can you not celebrate your birthday?"

"I just don't like people spending money on me, no matter what the holiday is. I was not rich growing up so things like that didn't matter to me, yes my parents got me gifts for the holidays and my birthday, but I also knew that money was tight for us, I learned how to pinch pennies so to speak."

"True, but now that you have friends who do have the money and a boyfriend how loves to spend his money on you, you could have anything that you wanted or needed."

"But that's just it, it's his money or your money not mine, if I want something then I can buy it for myself. I'm sorry that you don't like it but that's just how I am, I don't like people spending there money on me." I was getting upset that Alice wanted to keep arguing about it. I decided that I was going to go in the bedroom for a little while; I knew that Edward was in his office giving us privacy to talk. I was on my way to the bedroom when I walked past the office and saw Edward in there working on his computer; I changed my mind and walked into his office knocking on the door as I entered.

"Hey love, what's wrong you look upset." I didn't even realize that I had looked like anything, I was annoyed.

"Nothing major just having an argument with your sister and Jake is all. I was on my way to the bedroom and saw you in here so I thought I would come in and see what you were doing." He opened his arms for me and scooted back from his desk so that I could sit on his lap.

"Nothing of importance, what where you and my sister arguing about? You said that Jake was also involved." He was running his hand up and down my back soothing me; I put my head on his shoulder to get comfortable.

"They just don't understand why I don't like people spending money on me is all. I get that they have money and if I needed anything then I could ask them for it or even you, but I don't know. I just don't feel right asking people I have my own money, granted it's not as much as the rest of you but I still have my own. Then Alice threw a fit when I said that I don't celebrate my birthday, it's not the birthday itself that I don't like it's the attention and gifts. If it were just a quiet dinner here or something small like that it wouldn't be so bad, I just don't want people spending money on me. Then she and Jake started talking about going clothes shopping and how Jake takes the tags off of everything so that I can't return it. He spends like 100 dollars on a shit when I could go someplace else and get five shirts for the same price." I was getting upset again I could feel it, Edward continued to rub his hand up and down my back, while his other hand was rubbing my arm.

"So you don't like to celebrate your birthday only because of the gift?" I nodded my head that was the main reason. "But you would be open to doing a dinner here at the apartment?" Again I nodded; my birthday was still a few months away so I didn't see what the big deal was. "What if we just did that then, Alice likes to plan things it's who she is, but if I talk to her then maybe she will tone it down. We can have a quiet dinner here with your friends and family how does that sound to you?"

"That's fine but I don't want any gifts from anyone, not even you." I said looking him right in the eyes so that he would know I was serious about it. He nodded his head but I could tell that he was reluctant to do it.

"Ok, no gifts just dinner on your birthday got it." He was trying I could see it and I loved him even more for it; I kissed him sweetly in thanks. I put my head back down on his shoulder as he continued to rub my back, it was very soothing and soon I must have drifted off to sleep.

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Carlisle was coming over today hopefully to tell me that I could go back to work, I was ready. Edward didn't really want me to go back I don't think he would often stay home with me when he should be working but I didn't complain. I knew that once I went back to work so would Edward, he would be finishing up a club that he was going to open soon, I knew that he was working on things from home just so that I wouldn't be alone but I also knew that he really needed to be there for some of the things, I tried to get him to leave but he said that it was fine and they could live without him.

Around 6pm that night Carlisle came over and took one last look at me, he said that I could return to work but only do it for a few hours at time to start off. One week she said that I could try and work 4-5 hours and see how I felt after that, then if I was ok I could increase by 1 or 2 hours every week until I was at my normal working hours. That 4 or 5 hours would be mostly prep I think, that's always the longest and if I needed to I could sit down and still work, he said that was ok. I called Jasper right away and he said that was fine with him, but if at anytime it was too much just to take a break, the rest of the staff would just have to get over it. I knew that I was going to be getting some slack from them but I also knew that they knew what had happened too. Jasper said that they would all ask how I was feeling and when I was coming back. It was nice to know that the kitchen staff didn't hate me too much for just leaving them like I did. Edward was quiet while I was on the phone with Jasper and he had been when his dad was here also, I was worried that he was upset with me going back to work so soon, he said that he wasn't but that we needed to talk. When I was done with the phone call I went in search for Edward, of course he was in his office working on the club, I knocked just as I was walking in to let him know that I was there.

"What did you want to talk about," I was scared that he was going to throw a fit about me going back to work.

"I wanted to talk to you about having a bodyguard with you now that you are going to be working again. I don't want to take the chance of James coming after you again and not being prepared for it. I can't loose you; it would kill me if anything happened to you again."

"I'm going to be there with a bunch of people, I don't think a bodyguard is necessary right now, besides they haven't even been able to find him, he could be long gone by now in another country for all we know." I was trying not to get upset with him but it was ridiculous that he would think I needed a bodyguard with me at work.

"That's the problem; we don't know where he is, for all we know he could still be watching you. You haven't left the house much and when you do you always have someone with you. I want you to be protected that's all. I knew you were going to hate the idea but I would feel so much better if you would please let me do this."

"I really don't think it's necessary though, I'm going to have plenty of people there with me, I won't be alone. But if will put your worrying mind at ease then go ahead, just know that I don't like it." I got up and walked out of the office, I know that he is worried about my safety but to have a guard just seems a little much to me. I walked into the bathroom and took a shower before I was getting ready for bed, I wanted to get to work tomorrow as early as I could I knew that I would be up late so I didn't want to mess with a shower first thing. As I was getting ready for bed Edward came in the room, I was only in a towel not that it mattered any to me, he has seen my body naked with all of the scaring and he wasn't bothered by it. I felt him come up behind me and place a kiss along the side of my neck, it felt good, we hadn't been intimate yet do to my ribs; even though I was more than ready he wanted to wait until I was cleared from Carlisle. Now that I was hopefully he would keep going.

He continued to place kisses along the side of my neck while his hand came around me to hold me to him. I turned around in his arms to that I could put my hand threw his hair; I loved the feel of his hair. I let my towel fall to the ground so that I was standing before him completely naked, he moved a little so that he could take all of me in.

"Beautiful," he whispered and he started to kiss down to my breasts. He lavished each breast kissing and sucking on them, I was moaning it felt so good. He moved his hands down from my waist to my legs, I could feel him moving us backwards towards the bed, when we finally got there he gently laid me back in the middle and continued his way down my body until he reached my pussy. He licked and sucked my clit until I was so close to my release and then he would slow way down, it was sweet torture.

"Please baby, I need to feel you in me, I can't take it anymore"

"With pleasure," he said as he positioned his cock right at my entrance, slowly he entered me and it felt like heaven. He continued to pump in and out of me slowly, bringing me to my release again, this time when I was close he didn't stop, I cried out his name just as he released inside of me.

We lay panting trying to catch our breaths; he had his weight on his arms trying not to hurt me. When I was finally able to speak I didn't quite no how to say it.

"WOW," it was the only thing that I could think of.

"Yeah, that was incredible, I hope it's always like this," he said as he rolled over onto his side. I nodded my head; I hope that it did too. I decided that I was going to retake my shower now that I was all sweaty and sticky; Edward said that he would join me that was what he was originally coming in here to do before I sidetracked him.

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After a few hours of sleep I was up and ready for work, but first I had to be introduced to my new shadow. He was due any minute now and Em was bringing him over, he said that he was the best in the security business and Edward only wanted the best for me.

"I still think this is stupid, if James was going to try something he would have done it by now." I knew it was pointless to argue with him but I still didn't want a shadow with me all the time.

"I get that you don't want a bodyguard, but please try to see this from my side. I don't want anything to happen to you again, I can't bare the thought of losing you." There was a knock at the door before I had a chance to reply, Edward went to open it. In walked Em and some huge mother fucker, I mean this guy was massive, he had to be around 6'4", 300 lbs of pure muscle, he reminded me of a football player but without the gut, he was all muscle and he scared the shit out of me. He had on dark sunglasses so you couldn't see his eyes, that didn't sit well with me, I hate when you can't see someone's eyes that is the way to tell if they are lying to you or not.

"Hey guys, this is Felix he'll be Bella's bodyguard while she is at work and any other time. Felix this is Edward and Bella." He acted like it was no big deal that this huge guy was going to be with me all day.

"So you're going to be my shadow, lovely." I knew that I was giving the guy attitude but I didn't really care either, I didn't want him here. I made my way to the door but Edward stopped me before I could go.

"You know that I only want you to be safe love, I know that you're angry with me about this still. I love you so much," he kissed me lightly and then moved so that I could get to work. I was only going to be working the prep this week to start off. Felix followed me to the truck, just as I was about to climb in he stopped me and said that we were going to be taking the SUV.

"What's wrong with my truck? If you don't want to ride in it then fine don't but I will not be told that I can't drive my own vehicle." I got into my truck and started it up, I could see Felix just shake his head and get in the other vehicle, it looked like a suburban to me but I didn't know that much about cars and I didn't really care. I drove in peace to Twilight, I was trying to come up with a way to explain why I had a shadow to the other staff members but nothing was coming to mind.

I walked into the kitchen with Felix behind me and everyone just stopped what they were doing. I guess I would have to tell them now; there was no way that he was just going to blend in.

"Everyone this is my new shadow Felix, he will be with me until they finally catch James." There that was the best that I could do. "Now get back to work we have a service tonight."

Felix stayed in the kitchen and didn't say much, not that anyone would approach him he was to scary. Jasper came into the kitchen and looked at Felix and laughed, I'm glad that he found this funny because I still didn't like it.

"I'm so glad you find this funny Jazz, I mean at least you don't have to worry about him being out there with the customers scaring them away. Instead he's back here scaring your workers, maybe now people will start to get shit right." I was looking at Lauren, I hope that she was better then this while I was gone because when I would ask her to cut something a specific way she acted like she didn't know what I was talking about.

"Have there been problems with the prep for tonight?" I rolled my eyes obviously or else I wouldn't have said anything, I just gave him the duh look and he got the point. "Well it's good to have you back, how are you feeling? You have been here for about 3 hours now, are you going to stay longer today?" I didn't even realize that I had been here this long already. Carlisle said that I could only work 5 hours this week at the most in one day so I knew that I was going to have to go soon.

"I can only work another 2 hours before I have to go home according to Carlisle. I can increase 1 or 2 hours a week once this week is done depending on how I'm feeling. The guys have been doing the heavy lifting for me so that has been a tremendous help."

"Oh I know, Carlisle called me just after he left your place to tell me the good news, and then Edward called me and said that you could only work 1 extra hour a week after this, I told him what Carlisle told me, needless to say that he didn't know that I was already informed."

"I swear that man acts like I am going to just overwork myself to death! What until I get home and have a talk with him. Is there anything else that I should know about, did he say that I had to take breaks at certain points during the day or was he going to let me be the judge of that?" I was starting to get pissed that he was doing this; I knew what I could handle not him.

"Don't get to mad at him ok, he's just trying to look out for you and make sure that you don't end up in more pain then needed. Trust me if it were Alice in your shoes I would be doing the same thing, actually be glad that he is letting you come back to work, I would make her stay home. You know how well that would go over with her; I would have to tie her to a chair to get her to stay at home." Jasper snickered, he was right though Alice would go bat shit if Jazz made her stay at home when she was fine.

"Whatever, get out of here I have 2 more hours before you can kick me out and there is still a tone of prep to be done." I turned away from him and continued on with my prep for later. A couple of hours later Jasper came back and told me that it was time for me to go home, I said thanks and that I would see him tomorrow. I was walking out to my truck when Felix came up behind me scarring me, he said not to make any sudden movements but to slowly keep walking to my truck when I got there I was to look to my left, there was a man there and he wanted to know if it was James or not. I started to shake thinking that if James was here then I knew he didn't leave the country like I had hoped for. I got to my truck and turned left just like he told me to and there he was openly staring at me, I nodded to Felix letting him know that it was him. Felix led me away from the truck and over to the car that he had driven here, when I was inside he closed the door and locked them, he came around to the driver's side and got it locking the doors again.

"Are you 100 percent sure that it was him?"

"Yes, he was openly starring at me; I would know those eyes anywhere." I was trying not to cry, I was so happy that Edward had hired him now. Felix got on the phone with someone and told them where we were and that James was standing by a tree watching us, he also told them that my truck was still in the lot and he wanted someone to look at it before I drove it anywhere.

"I'm going to take you home now," he told me and started the car up.

When we got to the apartment Edward was outside waiting for me, he came to my door and opened it pulling me into his arms, I just starting sobbing. I was scared that I had already been found and now I didn't know what to do, I wanted to keep going to work because I needed to do something normal and I was tired of him controlling my life.

"Are you ok? He didn't do anything did he?" He was looking over my head with the last question talking to Felix.

"No he was just watching her, I had her go to her truck and then look to make sure that it was him, I didn't want to go after someone and it be the wrong person, plus the picture I have he had blond hair and it was longer, this guy had black hair and it was short but I remembered you said something about his appearance being changed. When she confirmed that it was him I brought her to my car and drove her home after calling you. I want someone to check out her truck, he seemed to be upset that she wasn't going to be getting in, so that makes me think that he did something to it."

"I'm sorry that I was angry for you hiring him, I really didn't think that he was around anymore because we hadn't heard from him." I whispered to Edward, I wanted to tell him that I would listen to him from now on about my safety but I thought this would be better.

"You didn't know nobody did. I'm just glad that Felix was there with you, I only want you to be safe." We walked into the apartment and I went to take a shower to get the funk of the day off, when I was done I laid down on the bed I was just going to rest for a little while.

AN:

Sorry to stop there, the next chapter will be a long one. It's going to deal more with what happened but first it's bed time for me too. LOL!


	9. Chapter 9

**I Do Not Own Twilight, The great Stephanie Meyers does, I just like to play with her characters!**

Sorry for the long wait. Went camping with my family over the weekend!

CHAPTER 9

When I woke the following morning I was alone but I could hear Edward in his office yelling on the phone. I couldn't really hear what he was saying but I could hear him shouting once in a while. I decided it was time to get up anyway and get to work; I told Jasper that I would be in today. My ribs were sore but nothing that I couldn't handle, I knew that Edward would have a fit but he couldn't really say much with Felix going with me now. I walked into the office and Edward looked over at me and smiled, I walked up to him and gave him a kiss good morning and then went to make breakfast. I had just finished when Edward came into the kitchen.

"Is everything ok? You sounded upset on the phone; I could hear you all the way in the bedroom." I set a plate in front of him and took a seat next to him.

"No, I got a call from the guy that Felix was having look at your truck, it's a good thing that you didn't start it up or you wouldn't be here right now. He had it rigged so that when you started it up it would explode; I don't know the technical name or anything I just know that it was meant to kill you. That pissed me off, I'm sorry if I woke you up though." He kissed me on the temple before taking a bit of his breakfast. "This is great, thank you love."

"Your welcome," I was still in shock about my truck I didn't quite know what to say. "I guess I won't be getting my truck back then?"

"No, is that what you're worried about?"

"It's not that, I just don't know what to say. In all honesty I'm not surprised by anything that he does anymore, I told you before that he was going to kill me and he will find a way."

"No he won't, I'm not going to let that happen. This is why you have Felix; it's his job to make sure that doesn't happen when I'm not around." He was getting upset so I decided I should change the subject.

"Do you have any thoughts about what you would like to have for dinner tonight? I was just curious so that I knew if I needed to stop by the store on my way home from Twilight or not."

"You are not going to work today, you can't be serious, and he put some sort of bomb on your truck!" I guess he didn't like that idea either.

"I'm going to work; it's what you pay Felix for so that I can go to work. I'm not going to let James stop me from working; if I do that then he will have won. This is not fair to me either, I hate that I have to watch my every move, but you have to remember that I have been doing this for almost 4 years now, I know what he is capable of." I got up from the table and started to walk back to the bedroom to get ready for work, I was not going to let Edward talk me out of it either. He followed me into the bedroom pleading with me to stay home today.

"I'm only going to be there for a few hours, it's not like I will be there all day long. Plus Felix will be there in the kitchen, hell the man follows me when I go to the bathroom, so I won't be left alone." I was trying to reason with a brick wall I think.

"I don't want you going to work; Felix will still get paid for today even if you don't go to work."

"I don't care, I'm going and that's final." I was finished getting dressed now and walking back to the front door, Felix was already here waiting for me.

"Let's go Felix, Edward already told me about my truck and I don't care, I'm still going to work." I said what I needed to and walked out the door, I wasn't going to listen to Edward tell me not to go to work or try to convince Felix that it would be a bad idea too.

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Work went smoothly today, Felix was on the phone more I'm sure giving Edward updates but everything was good. I hope that James has been caught by now but I hadn't been told anything. I knew that Felix was working with the cops because they came and talked to me also about what I had seen. I had just finished cleaning up when Jasper came into the kitchen and asked if I could talk to him in the office for a minute. Something told me that I was going to hear about coming to work from him too and that somehow Edward had but him up to it. Felix and I walked into the office and sat down, I took a chair in front of the desk and Felix took one by the door.

"What's up Jasper is everything ok?"

"Yeah everything is fine, I just wanted to know what was going on with the whole James thing, Ed called me in an uproar about you being stubborn and coming into work. I know you know the guy better then anyone, but if you don't think that you should be here then please don't put your safety in jeopardy, I don't want to see you or anyone for that matter get hurt because of this guy. I guess what I was wondering is you going to continue to work, if not then I want to be able to find a replacement quickly. If you think that you're going to stay then great, I know that Ed can be controlling at times and in this case I think I would be doing the same things."

"I want to stay here, but I honestly don't know what he is going to do next. James already knows that I work here, he got to my truck with no problem and he found my apartment too. I think I would look into finding another person just to be on the safe side, that way incase I can't work then you will have a back up. I could help with the training and things also if you need me too." I was kind of pissed but in a way I could understand his points too, if something were to happen to me then he would be out a chef again and that's not good for business.

"Ok, I'll look into this week then and we can both go over the applications and see which one will be the best fit back there. How are things with Lauren working out? I know that you were having trouble with her yesterday, did she do better today?"

"She was ok, I honestly don't think she will last much longer, most chefs won't but up with her lack of knowledge but I wanted to give her the benefit. It's like having to baby sit and you really can't do that in a kitchen."

"Do you think we should look into replacing her also then?" I nodded yes because she really wasn't working out; she didn't know how to julienne or dice, she would get the two mixed up all the time. That to me was simple basic training in culinary school. "Come in as early as you can tomorrow and we'll go over the apps that I have already and if we need to I can put in an add in the paper."

"Sounds good, thanks Jasper I'll see you tomorrow." We got up and left his office to go home.

When we got home Edward was already there waiting for me in the living room, he didn't look very happy and that made me wonder who he was mad at, me for going to work or was it someone else.

"Hey is everything ok? Are you still mad at me about this morning?" I asked him tentatively because I wasn't sure the mood he was in. When he looked at me I could see fear in his eyes that had me perplexed.

"This was delivered today; I think you should take a look at it." His voice was cold and hard, he threw an envelope on the table in front of him. I slowly reached for it not sure if I wanted to know what was in there. When I opened the envelope pictures fell out, I wish that I would have just left them in there. There was a picture of me hugging Jasper when I first got the job, it was taken here in my old apartment, there was also a picture of me laying on the couch cuddled up to Edward and one of us sleeping in the bedroom in his apartment. I wondered how he got those, this was way up at the top of the building and there were no trees around us. There was also one of me talking to Jasper today in his office it looked like, I was starting to shake I could feel it, but I didn't want to breakdown in front of Edward and Felix, I ran to the bedroom and shut the door. I knew that Edward was pissed, he must have seen the pictures and now he was going to want me to leave. I was crying so hard that I didn't hear the door open and close but I did feel the bed dip when he lay down behind me. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close to him telling me that everything was going to be fine. I knew that it wasn't going to be until I was dead or James was.

"I'm sorry that I didn't listen to you and went to work anyway."

"I'm not mad about you going to work love, I'm just worried about you because that psycho is still out there, and I don't want anything to happen to you is all."

"Jasper and I talked about him finding someone else to take over for me because of this, I said that I would come in early tomorrow so that we could go over the apps that he has now and see if there would be anyone that would work."

"I know I just got off the phone with him when you got home, he told me what you said, it's not that I don't want you to work, it's just right now with James still out there that I would feel safer if you were here at the house is all."

"But you seen the pictures, he knows that I'm here with you, he had a picture of us in bed together. I don't know how he is getting this, I thought that he only had the one person working with him that Lonnie guy and now he is dead and James is still finding this info out."

"I don't know love, but the cops are going to be stationed outside 24 hours now, they were taking breaks because they hadn't had any leads on James and now that he is back and watching you they are going to be sitting outside all day to see if he comes back here. Felix is still going to be with you even if you are here at the apartment; I don't want you to be alone while I'm at one of the clubs or something."

"Fine with me, I don't want to be alone anyway." Edward continued to hold me and my eyes became tired so I closed them for a little while, I felt like I needed a nap and it was only 4pm but with everything that had happened I was exhausted.

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The rest of the week went by quickly, I helped Jasper go over the applicants for a new chef and a new line cook, we were able to narrow it down to 4 possible people, 2 for each, and we would be meeting them the following week. Nobody had seen James at all, it was kind of odd that he was able to disappear like he did and then reappear. I continued to work and help Jasper out with the new people he had hired, Vicki was going to take the place of Lauren, and Vesilli was going to take my place. Both were great at there jobs and I wasn't needed much to help with the training. Edward was happy that I was home more now and in a way I was glad that I was too.

We went to his parents on Sunday for dinner; the whole family was there it was nice to see everyone. Sometime during the week I would talk to my friends as well, with the whole James thing I hadn't been able to get out much but they did come over often to see me. I hated that we couldn't go out like we used to but I knew that it was for the best.

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It's been about a month now and I still work at Twilight but only during the day for prep, that was fine with me it got me out of the house so I wasn't sitting there all day long with nothing to do. Edward's new club Pulse was up and running and was doing great so far, there wasn't much to do for kids and having him open a club that was for kids under 20 was a great idea.

I was out with Felix doing some shopping when I felt like someone was watching me, I looked around but I didn't see anyone. I continued with my shopping, Felix was just to my side looking at some things that he must have needed also, he usually did his grocery shopping the same day I did mine it was more convenient for him I guess. We had finished shopping and were headed home when out of nowhere we were hit from behind, I tried to look behind us but it was no use, the windows were tinted on the car so you couldn't see the driver. I had a feeling that it was James but I didn't know for sure this time, this was a bit much even for him. The person in the car hit us again and again until they had run us off the road and into a ditch, we rolled a few time, I could hear the glass breaking and everything in the truck get smashed together. Felix was doing the best that he could to keep us on the road but it was no use. When we finally stopped rolling I was in so much pain I let the black consume me.

AN:

I know that this was a short chapter and I apologies for that, my mind just wasn't working today, it's still camping with my kids LOL.


	10. Chapter 10

**I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS REVIEWED. I do not have a beta so i apologize for the errors in this story.**

CHAPTER 10

Pain, that's all I feel, is pain, even my hair hurts. It's just too much. Everything is going black again.

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Cold and pain, not a good combination. I'm so cold; I can hear my teeth chattering. I'm shivering; it's causing me more pain. I can feel myself slipping away again.

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Why is it so hot in here? Someone needs to turn on a fan. Why am I still in so much pain? Why is it so dark, I know my eyes are open?

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Beep, beep, beep, beep.

What is that?

Beep, beep, beep, beep.

Why can't they turn it off?

Beep, beep, beep, beep.

Why can't I open my eyes?

"I'm here baby, I don't know if you can hear me or not but I want to tell you I love you. Your going to be fine love, you just need to wake up." I knew that voice, "Why isn't she waking up yet?" Who was he talking to? I was trying to open my eyes, I wanted to see him I missed him so much.

"I'm sorry son I don't know, I wish there was a way that I could wake her but her mind and body isn't ready yet. Keep talking to her thought; let her know where she is and what's been happening. I'll be back after my rounds tonight, if there's anything that you need just have me paged ok." I heard a door open and then close, then I felt someone sitting beside me and take my hand into theirs.

"I don't know where to start, so many things have happened since you have been in here, you're in the hospital by the way. I miss you so much baby, I wish that you would wake up so that I could see those beautiful brown eyes of yours and hear that wonderful laugh. I'm looking into buying us a house out in the country with a nice size back yard, swimming pool, and even someplace that you could plant flowers or a garden if you wanted. Someplace that we don't have to worry about our kids being outside and can have a place to play and run. You can swim in those little bikinis that you have, I can watch you chase the kids around. You're probably wondering why I keep talking about kids huh? While you were taking all those antibiotics, they rendered your birth control useless, so as a result you ended up pregnant. You're only about 10 weeks now; it's a miracle that the baby survived the crash. The doctors come in everyday to see how you and the baby are doing; you can hear the heart beating and see this little dot on the screen. I hope you know that I will be here for you threw the whole pregnancy should you choose to keep it. If you don't want to then I will support you in that, but I'm hoping that you will." I wanted to shout out that I was going to keep this baby, but I couldn't, nothing was working I tried to talk to open my eyes even so that I could tell him that I was ok, that he didn't need to worry anymore. I could feel myself slipping back into the darkness; I was really beginning to hate the dark.

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"_Hey princess," I could hear my dad call for me but when I looked around I didn't see him anywhere. Everything was so bright, there looked like a light up ahead, I started to follow it to see where it would take me. When I walked threw to the light there were both of my parents. They looked great and I was so happy to see them, I started running towards them and pulled them to me hugging them as hard as I could._

"_Mom, dad, I'm so happy to see you guys, I've missed you both so much." I was crying I didn't want to let them go again._

"_We don't have much time to stay I'm afraid, we just wanted to tell you that we're doing well and to not worry about us, you take care of that handsome man you have there with you."_

"_Look at you princess all grown up, you have turned into a beautiful women and soon you will be a wonderful mother too. We are so proud of you, we want you to have a wonderful life filled with joy and happiness just like your mother and I have had."_

"_I know that we didn't tell you enough but we love you so very much. You were the best thing that we ever did in our lives, this little one that you have with you will be the center of your world. She will be daddy's little princess and mommy's little angel. Always remember to hold her close and tell her that you love her everyday, no matter what she may have done. But also remember when she's growing up that she is going to push her limits to the max, you did as a child also." My mother was giving me advice on raising a daughter, a daughter I just found out about._

"_Don't be surprised when you say no and she goes to dad hoping that he'll say yes. Keep the lines of communications open between you and your husband always, that's what helped your mother and me. I give him my blessing 100%, he will take great care of you and the kids, because there will be more to come." Dad laughed lightly, how did they know all of this?_

"_He's not my husband, just my boyfriend, though I didn't know that I was even pregnant until now. And you're telling me that it's going to be a girl?"_

"_Yes dear, I know that it's a shock to you, but one day that man is going to get down on his knee and ask you to marry him, it won't be because you're pregnant with his child, it will be because he loves you with all of his heart, the fact that you are giving him a child makes him happy but if you say yes to him he will be on top of the world."_

"_Princess I hate to say this but your mother is right. I hate the thought of my little girl growing up but I'm glad that you have found a man that treats you right. He will take great care of you and your children. On your wedding day remember that we will be watching from above, we love you so very much and we miss you everyday." They were fading on me and I didn't want to let them go yet._

"_Wait! Please don't leave me yet; I have so much more I want to say to you guys. I love you both with all of my heart and I miss you everyday." I said crying and trying to hold them here with me for a little while longer._

"_We love you too sweetheart, now it's time to put that poor man to rest, wake up and have a wonderful life with him and your daughter." With that said they were gone, I started to cry harder, I hated that I couldn't have my parents with me but I knew that they were always in my heart._

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I could hear the door to my room open again, I had no idea how long I had been in the hospital or what had happened to James and Felix. I was becoming more and more aware of the things around me now, I knew that the beeping sound was my heart beat, there was another sound it was almost like a whooshing sound I didn't know what that was but once I wake I'm sure they will tell me. I still couldn't believe that I was having a baby with Edward and a girl at that; I hope he didn't have a preference. I felt someone come up to the side of the bed and place there hand on mine, I knew right away that it was Edward's, there was this zap like an electrical current going threw my arm or where ever he would touch me.

"I wish you would open those beautiful brown eyes baby, I miss you so much." It sounded like he was crying, was there something wrong, had I been so out of it when I saw my parents that something happened to me or the baby? "They have you hooked up to this machine now that will monitor the heart rate of the baby; it's growing like it should. They said it's too early to tell yet what we're having, but I don't care. As long as you are fine and the baby is fine. Felix is going home today, he said that he wanted to stop by in a couple of days to see you, he feels terrible that he couldn't do anything about the car running you both off the road. The police have already talked to him, they will want to talk to you once you're up, and I personally don't care if you talk to them or not, I just want you to wake up." I could feel him lean in and place a kiss on the side of my head, I turned my head just a little, at least I tried to, and it must have been enough because Edward ended up kissing me on the nose instead. I could feel myself smile.

"Bella! Can you hear me baby? If you can squeeze my hand twice ok?" I was able to squeeze his hand twice like he asked me too, I was trying to open my eyes when I did I closed them right back. It was so bright in the room, I felt Edward lean over me to lower the lights for me. "Can you try to open your eyes again love, I've turned the lights down a little for you." When I opened my eyes the first thing that I saw was Edward's green eyes shinning with joy in front of me, I could feel my face smiling.

"I love you," I crocked out, my voice sounded horrible I knew that it was because I had been out of it for so long.

"Don't try to talk yet ok, let me page the nurse and dad so they can look you over first, you've been out now for about a month." He leaned over me to page the nurse, when she came in she ran right back out and I heard the page for Carlisle. When the nurse came back she had a glass of water for me along with some other looking goop that I was to drink first. After drinking the goop that she handed me she gave me the water, it was much easier to swallow now.

"The stuff I had you drink first is Lidocaine, it helps to numb the area, it won't last long but I thought it might help you out a little, it's also safe for you. Carlisle will be here in just a few minutes, he was going to finish up with his patient and then come right over. My name is Tia I'll be your nurse until my shift is over and then you will have Stefan during the day. I'm going to let you rest until Dr. Cullen gets here and then I will be back in with him ok." Tia seemed like a nice girl, she was young looks like she's still in school, I was wondering what Stefan was like, would he be nice like Tia or a real jerk.

"Jake would like Stefan and the same for him, when you meet him you are going to wish that you had Jake as a nurse instead, well at least I did."

"Is he that bad, or was it that he hit on you all the time?"

"He hit on me every time he came into your room, it was annoying."

"Oh it wasn't that bad, I recall you using it to your advantage." Carlisle chuckled as he came into my room. "I'm glad to see you're up finally, we were all worried about you. Has Edward had a chance to tell you about anything yet?"

"I could hear him while I was in and out of it," I was looking right at him so he knew that I had heard him. "I heard him say that he loves me that we are going to be parents in a few short months by some sort of miracle, that Felix was being released to go home and that he was beating himself up about what happened. I also heard that he missed me and he was looking into buying a house in the country so that the kids would have someplace to play and I love the idea of a swimming pool in the back yard, but it's going to have a fence around it just so there are no accidents." Edward was openly crying now, you could see the love in his eyes and the sheer joy that I was able to hear him. "That's all that I remember right now, I do remember the accident too I know that the cops are going to want to talk to me and that's fine."

"Well they're going to be waiting a few days you need to get your strength back first. So as you know you are pregnant, as of right now you are in your second trimester your at 13 weeks, it's a miracle like you said that you were able to continue to carry the baby. We have a monitor hooked up to you now so that we can hear the heart beat, that whooshing sound is the baby's heart beat. During the accident you had sustained a few injuries that we were concerned about, one of those being head trauma your brain was swelling rapidly so we had to drill a small hole to relieve the pressure. You have a broken shoulder, some ribs again, and your leg is broken. You might have noticed that you aren't in a whole lot of pain right now but in time you will be, we are giving you morphine for the pain it's safe for you and the baby. When you start to feel pain please let the nurse know right away, we want to keep the pain under control if you try to bare the pain it will seem like the meds aren't working and will cause you and the baby stress. We're going to keep you hear for a few more days and then you will be sent home with an at home nurse for a few weeks until your ribs have healed more. Unfortunately with you being pregnant and baby's love to kick the ribs you are going to be in major pain when that happens, when it does I want you to let your ob/gyn know right away, they will be able to give you something to help you. Also because of these injuries you are going to be on bed rest for the majority of your pregnancy, I know that you don't like it but for now you don't have the option. Do you have any questions for me so far?" Carlisle was going to tell me the truth; he knew how much I hated to be cooped up in the house all day with nothing to do.

"Not that I can think of that is pertaining to my health anyway. Edward told me that I have been out of it for about a month now. I do have questions about the accident and James though." I looked at Edward and he didn't look very happy so that told me that it wasn't going to be good news.

"I'll let Edward talk to you about that because I don't know much myself, I will be back in a little while I have a few more patients to see and then I will be back. If you need me before then just have the nurse page me ok." I nodded my head that I would; my throat was starting to get sore again so I was going to rest it for a little while.

"So you want to know about what happened?" He was wary about telling me, you could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. I nodded my head for him to continue. "Someone had been behind you and had seen what happened and called the police letting them know what was going on. Because of them they were able to get to you right away, but not fast enough to get the person in the car. The car was registered to a kid named Embry, he had reported it stolen about a week before, the car is gone now, and it was dumped a few miles down the road from the accident. They haven't found him yet though, I know that they are working on this case round the clock now. They had to cut the doors off the car to get to you and Felix, the person who called in the accident stayed with you until they got there, she has been here a few times to see if you would be ok. Her name is Bree she's 18 years old and was driving home from work when she saw a car hit another one trying to run it off the road, she didn't know what to do other than call the cops. When the cops got there she told them everything that she saw and got the plate number too."

"Wow that was nice of her; I hope that she stops by again so that I can thank her. Has there been any other news on James?" Edward shook his head no, that didn't sit well with me, and I was beginning to wonder if he didn't have someone in law enforcement helping him out.

"Do you think it's possible that he has one of the cops on this case helping him out? I mean how is it that they can't find him, he has been able to get to me a number of times and yet they can't? It just doesn't make sense to me, he has to have someone helping him from the inside, how else would he know where I am all the time?"

"I don't know love, I don't know." I could tell that he was deep in thought about it being possible.

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I have finally been released from the hospital! We are on our way home now, they nurse would be at the house soon, I had no idea who it would be I was kind of hoping that Tia or Stefan would be one of them. On my final day there they came in with an ultrasound machine and I got to see our baby for the first time, they said it was still too early to tell the sex but after my dream with my parents I was convinced that it would be a girl. I told Edward about seeing my parents and what my dad had said about him being a good guy and having his blessing, he didn't say anything about it but was glad that they approved of him. I wished they could have met in real life, I know my mom would have loved him.

Felix had been to see me before I was release, I told him that in no way was it his fault that we were run off the road and that I didn't blame him for any of it. I knew what James was capable of and I didn't want Felix to feel guilty.

Jake came by and said that he would see me at the house later today or tomorrow, he had to be in court so he couldn't stay long but was glad that I was finally awake so that Edward would start to calm down some. When I asked what he was talking about he said that he would tell me later, Edward said it was nothing to worry about just him being a worry wart.

We had been home for about an hour when the doorbell rang, I figured it was the nurse coming by to check on me, but when Edward answered the door it was Alice and crew. Esme had a baking dish in her hands and said that it was a casserole for later; she knew that Edward couldn't cook and that I wouldn't be able to do much for a few weeks, I thanked her for it.

"If you need anything at all dear just let me know, I can be here in a matter of minutes and its no bother to me."

"Thank you Esme, I'll let you know."

"So I was going to go shopping for some new clothes for you, you're going to need maternity clothes soon and I didn't know if you wanted me to get anything else." I rolled my eyes at Alice, like she would need a reason to go shopping.

"I don't need any new clothes right now, I can't even where the ones that I have. Right now I just want my comfy sweets that will go over my cast and baggy shirts, I know that it's not fashionable but nobody is going to see me so I don't really care."

"But you're not going to be down that much longer, you're going to need new clothes for when you get bigger." She was giving me her puppy eyes and trying to pout, but for once I wasn't going to back down to it.

"No Alice, I don't want any new clothes right now, why can't you wait until I am able to move more, then I might be up for going with you for a little while, I would like to actually pick out something, and even do some baby shopping, but it won't be for awhile yet ok."

"Fine," she sighed.

"Let the poor girl rest dear, she just got home." Jasper was trying to help me out and I greatly appreciated it. They left a couple of hours later when the nurse comes in; it was Tia who was going to be helping me out.

"I'm so glad it's you that I got, I wasn't sure if you did at home care or not, I told Carlisle that I wanted you if you did it."

"I don't normally do at home care but for you I made the exception." She laughed, she was a great nurse while I was at the hospital and I know that some do at home care also, so when Carlisle asked me I told him that I wanted Tia or Stefan if they were available he said he would look into it for me. "Let's get started ok, how are you feeling? Are you in any pain at all and I want you to be honest with me, remember we want to keep the pain at a minimum so that it doesn't get out of control before you say anything."

"My leg is bothering me but I don't think that I need anything for the pain right now. I will let you know before it get's too bad though I promise."

"Good, I'm going to look around and see what we can do about any temporary changes that need to be made ok." I nodded at her letting her do her thing; I was hoping there wouldn't be too many changes that needed to be made.

"I'm going to take you into the office; I want to show you the houses that I was looking at while you were asleep." Edward wheeled me into his office and parked me by his desk and turned the computer on. When he was ready he showed me these houses that I thought were way to big for us, he said that we would need the space for all the kids we're going to have.

"And how many kids are we talking about 12?" There was no way I was having that many kids, I may love him dearly but I was not going to be pregnant every year.

"No, I was thinking maybe 3 or 4, I would like to have at least one of each, and if your mom was right and we are having a girl then maybe next time we will have a boy."

"I can handle 3 or 4, but why would we need a house with 10 rooms in it? We only need 5 bedrooms and at least 3 bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, laundry room and an office."

"Well we would need an extra room or two for when we have people over, or if the kids want to have friends over then they would have someplace to stay."

"Ok 1 or 2 extra rooms but not 5 rooms, that's a bit much I think."

"Well they wouldn't all be bedrooms; we would have 6 or 7 bedrooms and the others we can use as an office, or something. You know that you don't need to worry about the cost of the house, that's not a problem." He knew how I always worried about what things were going to cost us, it was a habit that I was trying to break but it wasn't working yet.

"I know but I still think we only need 6 or 7 rooms at the max, I'm sure one of the house's you have looked at already has an office in it right?" He looked at me sheepishly and nodded his head, he thought he could get away with having more rooms but I knew him better then he thought I did. We continued to look at he houses he had pulled up when Tia knocked on the door.

"Ok I have everything that would need to be changed until you are able to start walking. I noticed that the bedrooms are all upstairs, and there is nothing down here that could be used as a temporary bedroom, so we are going to have to come up with a way for you to get up and down the stairs."

"I will be happy to carry her," I rolled my eyes at him of course he would.

"But what about when you're not here, if she wants to lay down for awhile how is she going to get up the stairs then?" I liked that she was challenging him, she had a good point though, and he shrugged his shoulder not sure on how to answer that one. "You need to have a ramp installed, they are temporary and can easily be removed once she can climb up and down the stairs, if you have any kids around they love to race up and down them also."

"No kids yet, but that's fine, do you have a number I can call to have them come out and put one up for her?"

"Yeah I do, this company can come out and make all of the necessary changes that are needed. You are also going to want to install something for the shower, they have chairs for showers, they sit right in there and she will be able to keep her leg out of the tub. I would recommend getting a removable shower head also, it makes things so much easier for her. Those are the 2 major things that I have found so far."

"Thanks Tia, I will call them first thing in the morning so they can get out here right away."

"What can I do about taking a shower in the mean time? I want to wash the hospital smell off of me soon; I was hoping that I would be able to do that tonight."

"For tonight I would just use a wash cloth, I know that you want to get cleaner then that, but until you get the shower taken care of there isn't much else you can do. Dr. Cullen wants you off that leg for a few more weeks yet. I'm sure this nice man here will be happy to help to." I blushed at her comment; I knew that Edward would be all for helping me.

"You bet Tia, maybe I should have them hold off on the shower for a few days," he was looking at me smiling so I knew that he wouldn't do that but I thought that I would get him for his little comments.

"Just remember that when you have to sleep next to a stinky person, I want that shower done first!"

"Ok you guys, I'm done here for the night, I'll see you around 11am tomorrow, have a great night and I'm glad to see you at home now Bella." I wished Tia a good night and Edward walked her to the door, when he came back we continued to look at new houses. I must have been falling asleep in the chair because the last thing I remember is Edward carrying me up to bed and telling me that he loved me and goodnight.

**AN:**

Whew that was a long chapter sorry for the late update, things are finally back to normal here so I should be updating again on Saturday night. Also I do know that they give morphine to breastfeeding mothers after a c-section, I have also seen mothers take morphine tablets while pregnant, but I don't know how safe it is for the baby, and I'm not a doctor.


	11. Chapter 11

**I do not own Twilight, the great Stephanie Meyers does. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story so far.**

**CHAPTER 11**

We had finally decided on a house; it had 8 bedrooms, an office, a huge kitchen, living room, dinning room, 4 ½ bathrooms, laundry room, and an entertainment room. The back yard looked huge; there was also a swimming pool with a gate around it. We could look into putting up a play set for the baby when she gets older. We were going to look at it today, Edward had talked to the realtor Kate, he said that she was good and used her when he was looking into places for his clubs and restaurants; we were going to meet her around 1pm. I was excited to see this place, when I asked Edward what the price was he told me they didn't list it. I thought that he was full of shit personally, how were people going to know weather they can afford it or not. When I brought this up to him he just chuckled and told me not to worry about, I knew that he had money but I hated it when he would spend it on me.

"Are you ready to go love? It's going to take a few minutes to get there." I must have been so lost in thought about the house that I didn't hear Edward come into the living room.

"I didn't realize the time; yeah I'm ready to go." He came up behind me then and started to push me to the elevator, I was hoping that this place didn't have many steps to go up. When we got to the car Edward picked me up and placed me inside then put the chair in the trunk. When he got into the car and started it he took my hand and pressed a kiss to palm.

"Are you excited about seeing the house?"

"Yeah, it looks great and the kitchen looked huge too, I can't wait to see if we like it in person."

"You just want to try out the kitchen don't you?" Edward laughed when I nodded my head, it sucked not being able to cook yet, I was hoping that Carlisle would let me start to walk soon; I hated to be in that stupid chair. "I know that you hate using that chair but it's for the best, plus I like you in it, you don't have a choice but to let me take care of you, and I can carry you everywhere."

"It's not that I don't like you taking care of me its just being confined to one place that I hate the most. If he would put me on crutches then it wouldn't be so bad I could at least move around and do things not sit and watch TV all day. Do you know what is on during the day while you're at work? Nothing absolutely nothing, unless you want to watch soap operas but even those are boring."

"I know love, but look on the bright side," Edward pointed out the window for me to see what he was talking about. The house that we looked at came into view, correction this wasn't a house this was a mansion and it was huge. I knew that it looked big in the photos but I didn't think it would be this big.

"Wow, this place is huge babe; I don't think we need anything this big." I was still looking at the house as he parked the car next to someone, this must have been Kate. He came around and opened the door for me and placed me on the chair, luckily it didn't look like there were too many steps to get up to the door. When we got closer I noticed that there was a small ramp there for me, I could have cried, I didn't even know that he had told her that I was in a chair temporarily.

"Hi Edward how are you doing? This must be Bella?" She seemed to be really nice and I liked her, she wasn't trying to hit on my boyfriend so it was a nice change.

"Yep this is her, thanks again for the ramp I could have carried her up the stairs but with nothing out here for her to sit on I wouldn't be able to carry her and the chair at the same time."

"Not a problem, the owners actually had one in the shed that I could use. Let's take a look at the inside and see if it's what you're looking for." Kate let us in the house; I could instantly see our family living here for a long time. The house was huge on the outside and even bigger on the inside, but if we are planning on having 3 or 4 kids we are going to need a big house I guess. I was really looking forward to seeing the kitchen now. We walked around the main level of the house there were 2 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, living room, dinning room, and kitchen. The upper level had 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and the office; the basement had 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and the entertainment room. I didn't see the basement because there was no way I was going to let Edward carry me down there, he had already carried me up the stairs to see the upper level, plus it was only the entertainment room, I knew that I would see it once I was able to walk around more.

"So love, what do you think? Can we get? Can we? Please, please, please?" I had to laugh at him he was giving me the puppy eyes too, I just nodded my head, and you would have thought that I told him he has won a million dollars or something he was so happy. He bent down to give a very heated and passionate kiss; I almost forgot that there was someone else here with us.

"I take it you liked the house then?" Kate asked while Edward was still kissing me. He finally broke away and told her to draw up the paperwork and that we would sign right away. She said that it wouldn't be a problem.

"Are you going to be paying the whole thing now or making payments?"

"The whole thing now, I have a check here from the bank." He told Kate as he took out his wallet and gave it too her.

"You do know that you don't have to do that now, they may take off some money for the cash payment, I could talk to them and try to get the price lowered. I know that 2 million isn't much for you but I would still see if they would lower the price." I started to choke when she said the price, holy shit!

"2 million dollars! Edward you're out of your mind!" It was a good thing that I was sitting down or I may have fallen over.

"I know that it might seem like a lot but it's really not. Plus it's a great home, there isn't anything that needs to be done to it, the paint is new, all the flooring is new and the hardwood floors are real wood not the fake stuff. The kitchen alone is more then a quarter of the price for the house, plus its got a pool in the back and it's on 10 acres of land." I just looked at him like he was crazy, there was no way he was paying that much for a house, I didn't care if the kitchen was a chefs dream or not.

"No, just no way! 2 million Edward, I would see if they would lower the price. What happens if you get sick or one of the kids is sick? What happens if god forbids you can't work anymore and I'm not working then what are we going to do?"

"I'm not worried about that, this is barely making a dent in the savings, I haven't even touched the other accounts that I have love; trust me this is a good deal." He was pleading with me threw his eyes; I knew that he really wanted this house, but I just couldn't see spending that kind of money on it. "Look at it this way, if we ever get divorced which I hope that we don't, you get to have the house."

"I don't want the house if that were to happen, I could care less I wouldn't have you that's the only thing that I care about, we could live in a cardboard box for all it matters to me."

"I have to agree with Edward on this Bella, the house has actually come down in price over the last couple of years, it originally started at 7 million. He's right about it being a good deal with everything that you have here." Kate was trying to get me to see things Edwards way and hoping to make the sale, she had to be getting a huge commission off of this.

"I can't really say anything, it's not my money but if you think it's a good deal then go for it." I was trying to be positive but I still couldn't wrap my head around the price.

"It's your money too, if you for any reason other then the price don't like the house then tell me please."

"I love the house; it's just the money you're spending on it." I was trying not to sound so whinny about the money but it was hard to do.

"I understand that, but if it makes you feel any better the apartment building that we live in now I bought for twice that amount and I had to renovate it too." I think my eyes were going to bug out of my head when he told me that, I truly had no idea that property was so much money, so maybe he was getting a good deal on this house.

"Ok let's do it then," I looked right into his eyes so that he knew I was serious about it. He came over to me again but this time he gave me a short kiss. I turned to Kate next, "When can we move in?" She just smiled at me.

"I just have to draw up the papers on it and have you guys sign them then the house will be yours. Give me till the end of the week to get everything taken care of."

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Once we were back home Edward and I sat in the living room going over the plans for the house. I still had my stuff in the apartment here so we were going to move that fist to the new house. He was going to call up a moving company to pack and move everything so that I wouldn't have to do it myself.

We were in the middle of going over plans when there was a knock at the door, I wasn't expecting anyone so I looked at Edward confused, he didn't seem like he was expecting anyone either. When he came back from opening the door he had two detectives following him, I had remembered them from the last time that James attacked me.

"Hello Bella, how are you feeling?" Detective Emily asked me, I told her that I was doing better now that I was awake and home. "That's good to hear, I know that you don't really want to do this but we need to ask you some questions on what happened this time."

"I know, it's not that I don't want to it's just hard to relive everything again." Emily nodded in understanding, her and detective Sam sat down on the couch across from me and asked me questions, and I told them everything that I could remember. When they were finally done I was tired and told Edward that I was going to lie down for a while, it was only 6pm but I was exhausted. He carried me up the stairs and put me to bed, and told me that he had some things to go over in the office and if I needed him to just yell.

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When I woke up it was light outside, I didn't realize that I had slept all night long. I could hear Edward talking to someone just outside our bedroom door; I was just trying to sit up when he came into the room.

"Good morning love, did you sleep well?" He came over to the bed and climbed in giving me a kiss on the cheek.

"Yeah I did I didn't realize that I slept so long. Who's here, I heard you talking to someone."

"The guys are here to put in the ramp and fix the shower for you." I started clapping I was so happy, I wanted to take a shower as soon as they were done with it, but Edward said that I would have to wait for a few hours until everything was set.

"Well what are you waiting for? Get them to work! I want to take my shower sometime tonight." He picked me up and took me down the stairs and placed me in the chair. I rolled into the kitchen hoping to find something good to eat in here, but nothing sounded good to me. I rolled into the living room to find Edward talking to one of the workers; I stayed in the kitchen door not wanting to interrupt his conversation.

"Hey baby, I want to introduce you to the guys who are going to make it possible for you to be a little more active like you wanted. This is Embry he will be working on the shower for you, and that over there is Garrett he will be working on the ramp, guys this is Bella."

"Nice to meet you both, so how long will I have to wait once you're done with the shower before I can use it?"

"You weren't kidding she really does want that shower done now." Embry laughed, I just nodded my head like it was going to fall off. "Once I'm done it will need to set for about 5 to 6 hours and then you should be able to use it."

"If I didn't love this man here I would kiss you right now! Seriously though I want this hospital smell off of me, I know that Tia has done the "washing" but I still have that hospital smell and I want it gone. So Embry stop standing there and get to work!" I laughed at him when he saluted me and took off for the bathroom to get started. I turned to Edward and asked him, "Can we go to the store? I can't find anything that sounds good to me in the kitchen right now." I gave him my pout face hoping that would help me out.

"What sounds good to you? Did you have something that you're craving?"

"No I'm not craving anything, and I don't really know what I want but nothing here sounds good either. I thought maybe if I went to the grocery store something would sound good to me." I was trying not to cry, I really wanted to go to the store and see if I could find anything.

"Let me call my mom and see if she can come over to watch the guys, I don't want to leave them here incase they have any questions." He pulled out his phone to call Esme and I was happy again, maybe this is what they were talking about when the doctors told me about mood swings I hope they don't last long or I might give myself whiplash.

Esme said that she would be happy to take me to the store if I wanted to go with her, she had some things that she needed to pick up as well, I told Edward that was fine with me. I haven't had a lot of time to spend with Edward's family, it seems like when we try to make plans something always happens.

About 45 minutes later Esme came in; she said that Edward could put the chair in the car while she helped me get ready. Because of my shoulder being broken I wasn't able to brush my hair, I had been wearing it in a ponytail so that it wouldn't look to bad. She brushed out my hair and left it down, saying that when we got back to the house she would put it up for me if I wanted her too. It felt nice to have my hair down for awhile; I don't normally wear it up except for when I'm cooking.

"How are you doing Bella? I don't mean with the pain you're in, I mean with the whole mess."

"The pain is down, I don't need to use as many of the Norco this time around which is nice. As for the rest of all this crap I don't really know, I'm still seeing my therapist about what happened but until they actually catch him I won't feel safe. I hate that I put Edward in this position to begin with; if he were to get hurt because of me I would feel horrible. The detectives, Emily and Sam, came to the apartment last night and took my statement about what happened, I asked them if there was anything on James yet but they said they hadn't heard anything. They were still looking for him but were coming up empty handed; it's frustrating not knowing where he is. I mean is he going to leave me alone now or is he going to come after me again? It's the not knowing I think that's killing me the most. What is he doing that they can't find him? They said that they are watching the apartment 24 hours but yet he was able to get to me, I had a bodyguard for crying out loud and he still got to me. Does he have someone working with him at the police station? Is that how he knows everything and is able to hide from the cops? It just doesn't make sense to me; someone has to be helping him out. I told Edward all this and he thinks that it's possible, I also mentioned it to Emily and Sam and they said they would try to look into it, they had to be careful not to tip the person off if there was someone helping him. At least they seemed like they believed me, I just don't know anymore." I ranted to her, the whole time she just sat there and listened to what I had to say, it was so weird it felt good to get that all out even though I had told this to my therapist. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to say all that."

"Nonsense dear you needed to let it out, I know that you said that you talked to your therapist but sometimes talking to someone else helps too. If you ever need a break from the house or just need to talk to someone call me, I will be more than happy to listen." She reached over the armrest and gave me a light hug, it was the mothers touch that I needed I think.

We went into the store, she grabbed a cart for us, I couldn't really push one and steer this chair at the same time so I was going to put my stuff in her cart. We went up and down the isle looking for the items that she needed. I knew that we didn't really need anything but I was still trying to figure out what I had the taste for, I knew that I needed to eat soon. We came to the cake isle and I thought about getting one but even that didn't sound good, we tried the ice cream but no go there either. I was starting to get frustrated when we went past what looked like a pasta bar of some kind. That was what I wanted, good Italian style pasta. Esme said that she was going to get something for her and Carlisle also that it did sound really good. When we were finally done shopping we headed to the check out, I got out my wallet to pay when I noticed that there was a new credit card in there with my name on it. I know that I didn't sign up for a credit card; I had my debit card that was the only one that I needed. I wasn't sure about it so I took it out to look at it when I noticed the name of the bank on it; it was the bank that Edward uses so I guessed that he put it in there. I still didn't feel right using it so I used my debit card instead; I was going to have to talk to him first when I got home to make sure that it was him that put it in there. We paid for our groceries and headed back to the car, Esme put the chair in first and then the food.

When we got back home Edward was waiting outside for me, he went around to the trunk and got my chair; once I was in he got the bags sitting a couple light ones on my lap. I thanked Esme for taking me with her and that I had a good time even if it was only grocery shopping, she said that when she goes next week that I could go with her so we set the time and date.

"Did you find something there that sounded good to you? You were gone for about 3 hours." I hadn't realized that we were gone that long, I felt bad leaving him here to deal with the workers for so long by himself.

"I'm sorry I didn't realize that we were gone for so long, but I did find something that sounded good to me, I got us Italian style pasta salads. Did you have any problems while I was gone?"

"Nope everything is almost done now, I'm glad that you were able to get out of the house for a little while, and you look more relaxed now."

"I am, I talked with your mom and after I ranted to her about all of this shit I felt a ton better, she said that sometimes you just need to vent. I don't know why I felt so much better talking to your mother but I did, she has that touch, a mother's touch."

"She is a great mom I think," Edward smiled at the thought of his mom.

"Can I ask you something?" He nodded his head for me to continue, "When we were at the store today I noticed that I had a new credit card in my wallet. Did you put that in there?" He was looking at me with a guilty expression on his face so I knew that he did. "I'm not mad but I didn't use it because I wasn't sure, you never said anything to me."

"I know, I was going to and then you were in the accident and I completely forgot about it until you mentioned it. It's to the checking account that I have, I know that you have money so I'm not going to pressure you to use it, but if you want to you can. Please use it for anything that you buy for the baby though, use your money for you ok."

"Whatever, I'm not going to argue about money anymore with you ok." I was giving up a fight that I knew I wasn't going to win no matter what I tried.

"Yes! I'm so glad that I managed to get you to see things my way now." I knew that he was just joking because he was smiling; he came over to me then and gave me a kiss on the crown of my head. I just rolled my eyes at him but he couldn't see.

"Hardy har, har," I rolled myself into the kitchen to get the pasta that I had got at the store; Edward followed me in to help me. "How much longer until the guys will be done?"

"Not to much longer, they have the shower done and are almost done with the ramp now, I think they said about another hour and then they would be done. After that then you only have to wait another 3 hours and then shower will be ready to use."

"Yippy! I can't wait until I can finally take a shower and get this stench off of me." Edward looked sad that I was going to be able to take a shower and not have him give me a sponge bath. "Are you still going to help me? I'm not going to be able to wash my hair yet until my shoulder is healed and it's hard to brush my hair, but if you don't want to then I can wait until Tia gets here in the morning and have her help me."

"No I'll help you still, I love to take care of you." I could see that he really meant it too. I rolled over to him and pulled on his shirt so that he would bend down and I could give him a kiss. When we broke away for air I heated up the pasta and took it to the table, we ate in silence but it wasn't uncomfortable. After dinner he helped to wash me in the new shower and it felt nice, afterwards we went to bed.

AN:

I know I said I would post on Saturday but my 11 year old son was admitted to the hospital and I didn't have access to the internet. Next chapter will be a couple days.


	12. Chapter 12

**I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT!**

Chapter 12

The next few weeks pasted by quickly we were busy moving into the new house and getting everything organized in the new house. We were going to put the nursery right next to our room, I was waiting for the ultrasound before I decided on a theme I know in my dream that my mom told me it was a girl but just incase I didn't want to pain anything yet.

We had been eating out the last few nights because I was too tired to do the grocery shopping. I was slowly getting my energy back and now that the unpacking was finally done I knew I needed to go. Edward was going to be at the club later so I figured I would have Esme take me, if she wasn't able to I would have Felix take me. She had been taking me with her the last couple of weeks and it's been great. Carlisle still didn't want me walking too much but said that if I was at home I could use a cane. It wasn't the best but it was better then sitting in the chair all the time. I was just getting ready to phone Esme when there was a knock at the door. I was slowly making my way there when Edward beat me too it opening it up.

"Hey mom, what brings you here?" He moved out of the way to let her in the door.

"Oh I was just in the neighborhood and thought I would stop by to see how things are going." I think we all knew better then that, she didn't live close to this neighborhood. "Actually I wanted to see if Bella was up for going shopping, I know that you don't have any food in the house and thought that it would be a good day to go. It's the middle of the week and in the afternoon so it's less likely to be crowded then if we were to go at night."

"I was just getting ready to call you about that too," I said laughing it was great that we were on the same page. "Let me grab my bag and then we can go." I didn't even hear when Felix came into the room; I knew that he was going to be going too.

"I'll take my own car ok, that way incase we need it you will have the extra room to place the bags." I nodded to him; he left with Edward to bring the car around while Edward put the chair into Esme's car. Once everything was loaded and we were ready Edward came over to the car and gave me a kiss threw the window.

"Don't forget that you have the bank card I gave you; make sure to use it on this trip. I know that you are going to be basically buying everything so it's going to be expensive. I don't want you wasting your money on this ok?"

"Fine I will, just to make you happy. I love you and have fun tonight at the club, I'll see you when you get home."

"Love you too baby, why don't you have Felix bring you by once you're done? I would love for you to come and see the club."

"Sure that sounds good, so then I'll see you later," I leaned in to give him another quick kiss before Esme drove away.

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When we got to the store Esme and Felix both grabbed a chart when I asked Felix if he had shopping also he said that it was for me.

"I know that you have to get everything and it's going to take more than one cart so this will save the trouble of going back to get another one." I just rolled my eyes at him but I knew that he was right. We went up and down every isle grabbing things that I knew we would need. When we got to the bakery section I couldn't decide what I wanted, I knew that really there wasn't anything good for me to have but I wanted something sweet anyway. Once we were done it was time to check out, good thing Edward knew that the bill would be expressive, I couldn't believe that we had gotten that much, but I reminded myself that we didn't have anything in the new house. We were packing up the cars when I looked at the cart and noticed that we still had quite a bit left to put in. Both the backseats were full as were the trunks, I wasn't sure how we were going to get it all home now.

"Maybe we should call Edward and see if he can help us out," Felix snickered. I just stuck my tongue out at him, I know real mature but hey I was allowed to be a kid once in awhile.

"I hate to say it but I think he's right, I don't have anymore room and neither does Felix, we have everything packed tightly already with no more room sweetie."

"Fine I'll call him then," reluctantly I took out my phone and called him, he picked up on the second ring with a worried tone in his voice.

"Baby are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine, we're in a bit of a pickle at the moment though, is there anyway you can meet us here at the grocery store?"

"Are you in trouble, I thought Felix and mom were there with you?"

"They are, and no we are not in trouble. You better promise not to laugh or I will hang up on you!"

"Ok, I'm a little worried so I don't think that I will laugh now what is going on?"

"We just got done grocery shopping," Edward interrupted me before I could go any farther.

"Now? Do you have any idea how long you have been there?"

"No, but that doesn't matter right now, we have both cars completely packed up with no wiggle room and we still have a bunch that needs to be packed so can you come down here and help out?" There was nothing, I looked at the phone to make sure I didn't drop the call, "Edward? Are you there?"

"Yeah I'm here, I'll be there in a minute," I could tell his voice was strained he was trying his hardest not to laugh.

"If you're laughing you better get it out of your system before you get here, love you buy." I hung up the phone not giving him a chance to say anything; I knew that he was laughing his ass off right now. I turned to the others and could tell they were also trying not to laugh. I rolled my eyes at them and said he was on his way. About 15 minutes later Edward shows up with Emmett behind him, I could see Em laughing in his truck talking on the phone, Edward was also on the phone so I wondered if they were talking to each other, I got my answer when they both hung up at the same time and got out of there cars.

"So I hear you went overboard on the shopping, I think Alice would be proud of you."

"Shut it you! And you, why did you call him?" I asked Edward pointing to Emmett, why he thought we would need him I had no idea.

"I wasn't sure how much you had left to pack up that's why, if we couldn't fit the rest in my car then we would have had to call him anyway, plus he was there when you called me and said he would come along for the ride."

"Whatever let's just get the rest of this loaded so that we can get it home, I don't want to let it spoil and have to do this again."

"What were you planning on doing with all this anyway, throw a party?"

"No Em, we don't have anything in the house so I got everything that we would need, granted we won't have to come back anytime real soon." I was getting tired and just wanted to go home put this stuff away and take a nap.

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About 2 hours later everything was unloaded and put away, I broke down the bigger packages and placed them in the freezer. Edward headed back to the club after everything was unloaded and most of it was put away, I told him I would see him later that I wanted to take a short nap first.

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When I woke a few hours later it was dark outside, I rolled over to see the clock and it read 2:30am. I couldn't believe that I slept so long, I imagine that Edward was going out of his mind worried about me by now, I'm surprised that I didn't hear my cell ringing when he called. I got up to use the bathroom and then went to get something to eat I was starting to get hungry now. When I walked into the kitchen I noticed that Edward was sitting at the table going over some papers, I don't think that he heard me walking in because when I spoke to him he was startled.

"Hey what are you doing in here?" I walk over to him and he opened his arms so that I could sit on his lap.

"Just going over the money from tonight, did you sleep ok? I called the house and Felix answered he said that you were still asleep, I told him not to bother you. I also had him take your cell out of the room so that it wouldn't wake you up." I kissed his lips quickly and rested my head on top of his when I answered him.

"Yeah, I didn't realize I was that tired, sorry I didn't make it tonight. How did everything go, where there any problems with the opening?"

"No, it went great really, I think the parents like the idea that there is someplace for there kids to go while they go out for a few hours also and don't have to worry about a babysitter. Although most of the kids there were too old for sitters anyway, but the parents like the club and that's what really matters."

"Good, so why are you up at 2:30 in the morning working on paperwork that could wait until tomorrow or later today anyway after you have had some sleep?"

"I just couldn't sleep right now that's all, give me a few more minutes here and then I will be up to join you, oh here is your cell too." He handed me my cell back, I went to make a sandwich and asked if he wanted on but he said no, after eating it I went back up to go back to bed. I felt Edward a little while later come to bed and we both fell asleep quickly.

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We had the ultrasound today and I couldn't wait, Edward said that he didn't care as long as the baby was healthy then he was happy with whatever we had. I was hoping my mom was right and we were going to have a girl first, I wanted her to have Edward's eyes and hair. He said that if it was a girl he hopped she looked beautiful like her mother, swoon.

Once we got to the doctors office and were called back she told me she was going to do the ultrasound first because she knew that drinking all of the water recommended I wouldn't make it till the end. I was grateful to hear that, I was ready to float out of the house when we left.

"Ok I'm going to take some measurements and then I will turn the monitor around so that you can see what's going on, do you want to know the sex of the baby if we can tell?"

"YES!" We both shouted at the same time, I looked at Edward and started laughing as did the doctor.

"Ok, let me get started and then we will see what we can find out." She moved the wand over my stomach pressing slightly harder here and there; after she had the stuff she wanted she turned the monitor towards us. There on the screen was our baby, I looked over to Edward and noticed that his eyes were glassy looking; he was staring intensely at the monitor. When he looked over at me I could tell that he was crying, I didn't know if this was a good thing or bad.

"That's our baby in there, I just can't believe it." He said in awe, I knew that he was happy about it. He was holding my hand and gave me a little squeeze then he bent down to kiss me. "We are really going to be parents; I think that seeing the baby on the screen has brought this into reality for me. I mean I knew we were going to be parents but it was like it was still a dream and to see it, WOW, just wow. I love you so, so much baby." I was openly crying now, not the quiet kind either the sobbing kind.

"I know what you mean, to see this life inside of me after everything that I have gone threw I just can't believe it myself." I was so wrapped up in Edwards's eyes that I forgot about the doctor until she cleared her throat.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but I do have other patients I need to see. I do have a clear view of what you are having if you want to look." We looked away from each other and there on the screen as clear as could be told us what we were going to have. **(I was going to stop there but felt I should continue for a little longer.)**

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We headed straight for the Cullen Estate to tell everyone the good news and what I wanted the nursery to look like. When we arrived everyone was waiting in the living room for us, excitement written all over there faces.

"Soooooo, what are you waiting for tell us already," Alice whined I knew she hated it when she wasn't told things right away.

"I still say you are going to have a boy, one that will have all the girls knocking on the door hoping that they will be the lucky ones." Emmett said.

"Will you both be quiet? I want to hear what my grandbaby is going to be." Gotta love when Esme puts them in there place.

"Ok so as most of you know I had that dream where my mom told me what I was having and well she was…" I had to pause for a dramatic effect plus I knew Alice would hate it.

"Correct!" Edward shouted out, for someone who said he didn't care he was really happy to be having a girl this time. The girls got up and gave me hugs and kisses while the boys patted Edward on the back doing that "guy hug" they do.

"So have you decided what you want to do the nursery in yet?" Rose asked me when we had seated on the couch.

"Yeah I have, I want to do a light purple and pink butterfly theme. I saw the design online and fell in love with it, I also had one picked out incase it was a boy too. I was thinking that we could go pick out the furniture late next week and then go from there, how does that sound to everyone?"

"Great, you know how I love to shop," Alice said.

"Are you excited to have a little girl soon?"

"Yeah, I want her to have her father's eyes and hair," I said.

"I want her to look like her mother, but at the same time I don't want to have to buy a gun to keep the boys away." Edward came and sat down next to me, I leaned my head on his shoulder starting to get tired. "Are you tired love, we can go home if you like."

"I'm getting tired but I don't want to go home yet, we don't see everyone enough and I want to spend some more time here with everyone."

"How are you feeling Bella, are the ribs still giving you a hard time?" Carlisle asked me, I could tell that he was in doctor mode.

"I haven't had to take any pain meds the last couple of days, I feel fine, but I just get tired quickly right now."

"That's normal; you should start to get some of your energy back here in the next few days. It's good that you haven't had to take the meds though. I noticed that you have been using the cane more; in about another 2 weeks we should be able to take that cast off and put you in a walking boot. That will help you out more, and then you might not need the cane."

"I can't wait, I hate using this thing but I would rather use that then the chair. This way I can move around and do things, with the chair I was to confined and I hated it."

"I understand, most of my patients say the same thing." We continued to talk for awhile longer. After having dinner at there house we went home, I went to shower and get ready for bed I was so tired.

"I'm going to be a little while, why don't you get some rest baby. I love you." He gave me a wonderful kiss goodnight and tucked me into bed. I was out within minutes.

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AN:  
>So sorry for the long wait, real life get's in the way sometimes sorry. I hope to have another chapter for you soon but can't make any promises. Let me know what you think by hitting that little review button!<p> 


	13. The baby shower

**I Do Not Own Twilight, The great Stephanie Meyers does, I just like to play with her characters!**

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, it means a lot to me that you take the time.  
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>Chapter 13<p>

I was now in my 7th month and things have been going ok, they still haven't caught James yet, but haven't stopped looking for him either. I haven't noticed him around I don't know if that's a good thing or not, at least if we know he's around then we know where he is, it's the not knowing that worries me the most. I was at home board out of my mind; I was on bed rest for the most part. I could get up to use the bathroom and make something to eat for myself but it would have to be a sandwich or something light, the doctors didn't want me up moving around a lot because my legs were swelling bad. Carlisle said it happens and also because of the injuries that I have already sustained he thought it was best, me not so much, I hated not being able to go anywhere. Esme came by often as did Rose and Alice to keep me company, it was great, and they got along well with my other friends too. Alice wanted to throw me a baby shower and I told her I didn't want it, I hated having the attention on me and she knew that. She said we could do something small just family and friends, have dinner here and then open gifts for the baby, I finally relented and told her ok but she had to keep it small. That's where I found myself today, getting ready for this party.

"I have an outfit here for you to wear and I don't want to hear the word no either," Alice told me as I came out of the shower.

"Alice why can't I wear what I want? If it's just going to be us then there is no reason for me to dress up."

"You have to dress up a little for a party even if it's your own."

"Fine but why can't I wear pants? I'm huge if I fall down, which I know that I will everyone is going to see everything!"

"You will be fine, plus you'll be on Edwards arm so you won't fall ok?"

"Fine," I was ready for this torture to be done with anyway. We headed downstairs where the party was going to be, when I walked into the living room, there were people there that I didn't know. I could see that all my friends were here including Jake and Paul, I thought it was a little weird that they were here also but then I see that the others had there spouses with them too, maybe they were all here now and leaving later. I felt Edward come up behind me and place his hands on my every growing stomach and I placed my hands over his and tilted my head a little to that I could kiss his cheek.

"You look beautiful love," he told me as he kissed me back.

"Thank you, who are all of these people Edward?"

"Most are family or close to family anyway, they wanted to be here to celebrate with us." I knew there were some members of the family I hadn't meet yet and didn't really think that I would unless we were getting married because they all lived in other state.

"I thought that most of them lived in other states? Why would they fly in just for a baby shower?"

"It's going to be the first granddaughter for mom and dad and they wanted everyone hear to celebrate with them is all. Let me introduce you to them ok." He took my hand and led me over to where a group of 5 people were standing around talking to Esme and Carlisle. When we came up everyone stopped talking and turned to Edward and me.

"Hey how are you guys doing? I would like to introduce Bella to everyone. Bella this is my uncle Alec and his wife Clair, this is Caius he's not really my uncle but he's close enough I've known him my whole life, he worked with dad in the E.R during his rotations, this is my uncle Peter and his wife Charlotte."

"Nice to meet you, thank you all for coming to the shower." I shook the guy's hands and the women gave me hugs congratulating us on the baby.

"Have you picked any names yet?"

"No not yet, we can't seem to agree on one." I said it was true we had been talking about names and nothing was working, I would like a name and he wouldn't or vice versa. We talked for a little while longer and then we excused ourselves and he took me to meet more people, this group had about 5 people in there.

"Hey man, how the hell are ya?" This guy came up to Edward and punched him in the shoulder.

"Good, good, how about you?"

"Not to bad, can't complain much, is this the lovely Bella that I have been hearing about?" The man turned to me then.

"Yep this is my Bella, Bella this is my annoying cousin who thinks he is gods gift to all women Riley."

"Nice to meet you," I said shaking his hand, he pulled it up to his mouth and kissed the back of it, I turned bright red and Edward growled at him.

"I have someone here I would like you guys to meet also, Bree this is Edward and Bella." I had heard the name before but I didn't know that it was the same girl that had saw my accident.

"Oh god you're ok!" She came up to me and gave me a huge hug; I hugged her back not knowing what to do.

"Bree was the girl I was telling you about, she saw the accident when it happened and reported it to the police."

"Thank you so, so much for what you did." I was grateful for her being there and telling the police what happened that day.

"Let me introduce you to the rest of these guys, this is uncle Eleazar and his wife Carmen they are Riley's parents, and this is Tanya my cousin she is the daughter of Alec and Clair, and this shit over here is Mike I won't claim to be related to him." Edward laughed Mike just looked at him like he had gone mad, it was kind of funny, I was wondering if they were really related or not.

"Funny jackass, no we really aren't related but should be, I have know this fool here for most of his life anyway, we meet back when you were I think 4 or 5 years old, our parents were close growing up and we have been friends since then, but because I live on the other side of the country I don't see him as much anymore."

"Are your parents here? I didn't see them anywhere around."

"They couldn't make it this time unfortunately, they just opened another store and needed to be there for it."

"I understand that, I opened my a few months back but the first month was ruff needing to be there more then anything." They talked for a little while and then I was introduced to the next group, this one was the smallest so far they only had 3 people there.

"Hello ladies how are you all doing today?"

"Great thanks so much for inviting us; it's good to see that you're doing well for yourself."

"I couldn't be happier, this is Bella. Bella this is Chelsea she is the daughter of Corin and Senna these two lovely ladies." I was a little shocked at first he never said that he had a family member who was gay, but now I see why he was so comfortable around Paul and Jake.

"Nice to meet you all, glad you could make it."

"Thank you dear, it's wonderful to finally meet the women to put Edward in his place for a change," Senna said.

"Somebody had to keep him in line; it's not always an easy job either." I looked at Edward and laughed at the scowl he had on his face, I reached my hand up to his cheek and patted it lightly letting him know I was only kidding. Finally it was time to get started now that I had been introduced to everyone, Alice had set up the first of the games for us to play, and I was getting to play some of them also. She had us play this game where you have to guess what is in the diaper, it could be baby food or a candy bar she told us. The next on you had to use the squares in the toilet paper and guess how many it would take to go around me; I wasn't doing that game obviously because I knew how many it would take. Then we were going to play bingo, the guest had to make there cards first and then as I opened the items up would mark them off the list. I thought I was a cool game to play. The first game was crazy, leave it to Emmett to actually lick the diaper and tell Rose what it was, when he tried to kiss her after she looked at him like he had lost his mind. Everyone was laughing at him, he really knew how to have fun at a party, and Senna won that game. The next Game was the toilet paper one that was in some ways funny and not so funny, some were really close and others way off but it was fun for them, Tanya was the closest so she was the winner. When it was time for the bingo game Alice handed out the cards to everyone with a pen and told them to list the items they thought I would be getting today. While the guests were working on the cards I figured it would be a good time for me to get something to eat, I hadn't really eaten much because of how busy we were and my nerves were all over the place. I had finally settled down some and was actually having a good time now. I went to the kitchen to grab something to drink and Edward followed me in.

"Are you having a good time?" I nodded my head because I couldn't answer him with a mouthful of food at the time. "Good, I still can't believe that almost everyone was able to make it. Mom had told me that she was calling them and that she wasn't sure how many were going to be here but I know that she's happy that you are getting along with everyone, so am I."

"Everyone seems to be really nice," I shrugged my shoulder not knowing what else to say. Once I was done eating I went back into the living room, everyone seemed like they were ready for the bingo part all I had to do now was open gifts. We had a system, I was going to open the card read it and then pass it to the person to my left, then Alice would give me the package that it came with, she was also going to be writing down who got me what so that I could send thank you cards later.

The first one I got was from Riley and Bree, they got me clothes for the baby, diapers, wipes, bottles, baby shampoo and soap, I showed everyone while they oohed and awed. I continued with the next gift from Rachael and Marcus; pink and white crib sheets, changing pad, diapers and wipes. Next was Peter and Charlotte; nail clipper set, diaper bag full of little travel size bottles of shampoo and soap with a small package of diapers and wipes, and hooded towels. Jessica and Randall got us; a high chair that I could use for any child it was gender neutral which was nice, spoons, bowls, bibs, burp cloths, and a bottle warmer. Clair, Alec and Tanya gave us; a baby monitor that you could see the baby sleeping with, diapers, wipes, and a baby swing. Angela and Ben got gates for the stairs, pacifiers, diapers, wipes, and a wipe warmer with a light. From Caius we got, outlet plugs, cabinet locks, stove knob covers, and a bath thermometer, he was a doctor after all so it didn't surprise me that he went with safety items. Chelsea, Corin, and Senna got us, an ear thermometer with covers, diaper rash cream, baby lotions, and medicines incase she is sick. Carmen and Eleazar got us, diapers, wipes, burp cloths, bottles, hand wipes, and a play mate. Tia and Stefan got items for the car, strap covers, window shades, head support, and car seat cover for when it's cold out. The next items that were brought to me Jasper had to carry over because they were huge boxes; I was kind of worried because I knew who was left. I opened Jasper and Alice's first they got us a stroller and car seat combo, clothes galore, diapers and wipes. Next up was Rose and Emmett; they got a cart cover, diaper bag filled with clothes, diapers and wipes, and a pack 'n play for when we go out of town she said. Last was Carlisle and Esme the box Jasper brought to me was small almost like it would have clothes in it, when I opened the box inside was a picture of the nursery completely finished with a new crib, changing table and dresser comb and a bassinet was also in the picture, the box also had teethers, bibs, and hooded towels. I know I was crying then because when I looked up from the box everything was blurry.

"Thank you so much, all of you." I was too choked up to say anything else. Edward came to stand beside me and knelt on the floor in front of me. He placed his hands on my face to wipe the tears away and gave me a kiss on the forehead.

"There is one more gift for you to open up love," he handed me an odd shaped gift, there was no box around it just the paper, when I opened it up there was a baby bath, but what caught my attention the most was the ring box in the middle. I saw Edward take the box out and put the bath on the floor; still kneeling he opened the box. Inside was the most beautiful ring I had ever seen, it was set in platinum with two sapphire stones around a single diamond in the middle, and it was beautiful. I was a blubbering mess and I knew it but I also wanted to hear what Edward was saying so I had to listen carefully.

"You know that I love you with everything that I am, heart, mind, body, and soul. For the longest time I thought I would be alone in the world and never find the happiness that my parents have and then you came waltzing in to my club that night. When we are in the same room I can feel you, it's like this magnetic energy I guess, I know where you are, I don't even have to look I can just feel you. When we touch just with our hands I get this jolt of electricity that goes up my arm and down to my toes it warms me inside. The day you were taken from me I thought I would loose my mind, I didn't know what to do but I prayed, I prayed everyday until you were found and brought back to me. Then we get the news of you being pregnant after the car accident and how it was a miracle that she survived, I knew then that our baby was going to be strong just like her mother. I lied earlier today when I told Corin and Senna that I was the happiest I had ever been, if you will agree to marry me and become my wife I would be the happiest man then. Will you Isabella Marie Swan marry me?" I was crying so hard I couldn't even speak, I just nodded my head frantically yes. I could see the light shinning in his eyes when I nodded.

"YES! YES! YES! I would love to marry you Edward Anthony Cullen, love of my life." He picked me up off the chair and hugged me hard while kissing every inch of skin that he could reach. I could hear everyone in the background saying there congratulations and wishing us the best of luck.

"I have a confession to make now," I looked at him waiting for him to go on, "The real reason that everyone is here was because they all knew that I was going to be asking you, it's a baby shower and engagement party all together, most of the family won't be able to come back for awhile and I wanted everyone to know."

"That makes a lot more since as to why the guys were hear then, you don't normally have guys at a baby shower."

"I know but it was the only way I could think to propose to you, I didn't want to take you out, I wanted everyone to witness the happiest moment of my life with me."

"Thank you, you will never understand the love that I have for you Edward, what you did tonight…I just never suspected a thing, I had no idea that you wanted to marry me so quickly, I know that it's not because of me being pregnant so I wasn't worried, but I am so happy to be the future Mrs. Cullen." We were interrupted by family and friends congratulating us.

"I can't believe that you knew this and didn't tell me, you ass!" I slapped Jake and Paul on the arms and then hugged them to me.

"As long as he keeps that smile on your face, I'm happy for you," Jake whispered to me, I could feel Paul nod as well.

"Hey quite hogging the new Cullen, it's time that I give her the proper welcome to the family hug," Emmett said just as Edward yelled, "She's pregnant!"

"It's ok jeez; I wasn't going to swing her around or anything." He came over to me and gave me a bone crushing hug like he always did. "Welcome to the family Bella."

"Thanks Em, I've always wanted a gigantic bear for a brother," I said laughing once he released me. He just rolled his eyes at me and then the next person to come up was Alice.

"I'm so excited to be getting another sister!" She hugged me and then left to hug Edward. Everyone else did the same they would come up say congrats and then hug me, when they were done they went to Edward and did the same. Finally the last to come up were Esme and Carlisle, Carlisle talked to Edward while Esme came up to me.

"I have considered you a daughter since you came into our lives; you have put that smile on my son's face that never leaves. The day that you came here and told us about you being pregnant was the happiest I had ever seen him. And now that you have said yes, that boy won't stop smiling so thank you from the bottom of my heart. I can't wait to see you both get married and have this wonderful little girl." I started to cry again especially when she wrapped me in a hug that only a mother could. Once she let go she walked over to Edward to talk to him and Carlisle came over to me.

"Thank you Bella, I have always wanted my children to be happy and you have given my son the happiness that he deserves. I wish you and him all the best, I can't wait to see the both of you married and with children."

"Thank you, can I ask you something before you go?"

"You can ask me anything sweetheart, are you having any problems with the baby?"

"No everything is fine can't wait for her to get here but other then that she's doing great. This is something personal, my father as you know has passed away and I know that he will be watching me from where he is but would you walk me down the isle?" I thought he was going to cry, his eyes instantly started to tear and I was hoping that I hadn't upset him.

"I would be honored to walk you down to my son. I have always thought of you as one of my children and now you will be soon." I hugged him to me hard and cried some more, I was definitely emotional today.

"What's going on over here? Are you ok baby, is there something wrong?" I could hear the worry in his voice, I shook my head no at him but before I could respond Carlisle beat me to it.

"Everything is wonderful son, she has asked that I step in for her father who can't be there and walk her down the isle."

"That's great!" Esme exclaimed Edward was looking at me in awe I could tell that he wasn't expecting me to ask his dad, I had thought about it for a brief moment to ask Jake but I would like to have a father figure do it instead. We stayed there for a while longer until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore, we told everyone who was left goodnight and headed home.

When we got there I was suddenly wide awake, I told Edward that I wanted him to make love to me that night and he did with no hesitation. We spent the whole night making love; we finally fell asleep around 6am.

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AN:

I know this is a short chapter sorry but my mind is shutting down on me now, not sure when the next update will be but hopefully sometime this week.


	14. Wedding prep

**I Do Not Own Twilight, The great Stephanie Meyers does, I just like to play with her characters!**

**I AM SO, SO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE!** My a/c went out and with the hot weather I couldn't concentrate on anything, today the weather has been nice so I hope that it will stay that way at least until I'm done with this chapter for you all.

Thank you to all of the reviewers you are great people. I want to apologies for all spelling errors and grammar errors; I do not have a beta so it's just me who proofing this, if there are any errors that you see let me know I do accept criticism.

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Chapter 14

We are currently sitting here listening to Alice lecture us on why we can't get married so soon. We had finally set a date and it would be in 5 weeks, the day that we met. Neither Edward nor myself wanted to wait long to be married, if Edward had it his way we would have been married the following day. Alice was in hysterics that we wouldn't be able to plan a wedding in that short amount of time, personally I was fine with just going to the justice of the piece, and Edward said we could fly to Vegas, but nobody in the family liked that idea at all.

"Why can't you wait awhile longer? It would give us more time to plan the wedding and make sure that everything is perfect."

"I don't want to wait that long Alice I already told you that, if you keep it up I will take her to Vegas and you won't have any say in it." He was getting irritated with her and it was showing in how he was talking to her.

"I don't want to wait either Alice you know that, so what if we don't have the big grand wedding? I don't want that anyway, I just want something small with family and close friends only. I appreciate that you want to help but you're taking over and this is my wedding." I knew that the hormones were starting to take control now so I decided it would be best if I just got up and walked away for awhile so that I wouldn't say something to hurt her. I walked into the bedroom and laid down on the bed, the baby was kicking up a storm and it was starting to bother my ribs. Luckily I haven't had to take any pain meds for it yet, Carlisle had told me that I might when I first had the accident.

There still hasn't been a whisper about James yet; nobody knows where he is or what he is doing, and the cops I think are giving up again. I noticed that they drive by here a few times a day but they don't sit out front anymore like they were. I know that once they leave me alone completely he will be back to finish what he started, I just hope that it won't be on my wedding day and I will have already had the baby and she won't be with me when he comes.

Edward came into the room a little while later and said that Alice didn't mean to upset me and had left for the night.

"I'm not mad at her it's just she wants us to wait to get married and I really don't. Nobody else was against the idea of us getting married that quick so why is she?"

"I don't know, I think it's because she has this whole grand wedding planned and we ruined her ideas. I'm with you though I don't want a huge wedding just something simple. I do want to be a part of the planning though, except for your dress I know I can't be a part of that but I'm ok with it." He put his arms around me as I snuggled into his side, I loved when we would just lay here and cuddle it was my favorite time of the day.

"I don't have a problem with you helping out but I think your sister might. With me she thinks that she can use her puppy eyes and get her way and with you she knows that she can't."

"I know, but if you don't want something just tell her no and don't let her talk you into it, she will get over it. I felt bad for Jasper when they got married because she had this huge wedding, I have no idea the finale cost but it had to have been millions. It took her almost a year and a half to get everything ready to the way she wanted it. I refuse to wait that long to call you my wife, I still say we should go to Vegas."

"Funny, your whole family was against that idea. I personally don't want to get married by Elvis either sorry babe."

"Fine, I think I can wait the 5 weeks then if I have to," he was trying to give me the pout but I rolled my eyes at him.

"Sorry not going to work this time." We talked a little more on what we wanted for the wedding so that we could present a united front with Alice.

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Alice called the following day to say she was sorry, I told her that I wasn't mad and that Edward wanted to be a part of the planning as well. She took it a lot better then I thought she would which made me happy. I told her that we could get together this weekend to start the planning and she said that was fine with her.

Edward had been at the club the last few days at all hours, I was worried that something was wrong but when I asked him he said that everything was fine and I didn't need to worry about it. I told Edward that I wanted to visit him later and he said that I could always ride with him if I wanted to or have Felix drop me off, at least this way I knew that he wasn't trying to hide anything from me. I know that I have no reason to think that he would cheat on me but with all the weight that I have gained I get insecure about it I know that he has women there that are gorgeous looking and that I would never compare to them. I was so lost in thought that I didn't notice the time and my phone started to ring.

"Hey babe," I said answering the phone knowing that it was Edward on the other side.

"Hey beautiful, are you going to come down to the club? I thought that you were but when you didn't show up I was wondering if everything was ok."

"I'm on my way now, I just lost track of the time is all sorry to worry you."

"As long as you're ok then its fine, what were you doing that had you losing track of the time?" I didn't really want to tell him about my insecurities because I know what he would say.

"Nothing really just thinking is all," it wasn't a total lie I was thinking I just omitted what I was thinking about.

"Ok, well I'll see you soon then love, when you get here just come back to the office ok. I love you." I told him I loved him too and hung up the phone and went to find Felix.

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I had finally made my way back to the office where Edward said that he was going to be, every time I tried to go back there someone was stopping me and asking me how I was feeling and when I was do or they were congratulating me on the engagement. I knocked on Edwards's door and got a ruff come in, he sounded a little upset about something.

"Hey love, you finally made it in." He said as I walked into the office, he got up from the chair and wrapped his arms around me giving me a much needed hug.

"Yeah I would have been in here sooner but every time I moved someone was coming up to me wanting to talk to me, I was starting to get a little annoyed because I knew that you were waiting for me."

"I already knew that you were hear in the club, I was watching you threw that window," he pointed to the window that you could see the whole club threw but nobody could see you. "I noticed that you were getting a little irritated that you couldn't get up here fast enough."

"I just wanted to let you know that I was here first before I was bombarded by people. How has your day been going? You seemed a little upset when I knocked on the door."

"It's nothing for you to worry your pretty little head over, just some club stuff."

"Anything that I can help you with? If you just want to vent then I can listen maybe give you an outside point of view?" I knew that something was bothering him but he wasn't telling me what it was; I thought that maybe if he knew that I was willing to listen he would open up.

"There is someone steeling money from the club, I'm trying to go threw all of the possibilities and it's just frustrating that I can't figure it out yet."

"How many people do you employ in the club? I would start with the top of the list, don't list who you think would do it because it may be someone who you wouldn't think. I could help you if you like, I mean I just sit at home; this would give me something to do until the baby gets here anyway. And it would keep Alice off of me for awhile."

"Is she still trying to take over everything? I can talk to her if you want."

"No I get that we are having the wedding in a few weeks and there is much to be done but sometimes she just doesn't know when enough is enough, she just tires me out is all. You don't have to talk to her its fine. We have an appointment for the caterer in a couple of days and I let her take care of the flowers because I know how she likes to be in charge of something. The photographer will be here later this week also but I don't remember what day, I have everything written down at home so we can go over it when we get there."

"That's fine with me, love. I have a list printing of the employees here I like your idea about starting from the top maybe that will help to eliminate some." We started with the list of people after it was printed and I never realized how many he had here at just the club it was kind of overwhelming. I could understand why he was so tense the last few days, this was craziness.

"What about this guy Royce King, you hired him a few days after your grand opening. He has been here on the days that you noticed money missing. Have you already checked the camera's you have by the register?"

"That was the first thing that I did, he never took anything out that I could see unless it was the change to give the customer. Let me pull up the video for you to watch, maybe I'm missing something." He pulled up the video footage of Royce and I watched just him and his movements to see if there was something missing. I couldn't find anything that looked wrong to me so I had Edward play it again so that I could watch what was going on around him to see if that would help us any. As I was watching the video I noticed someone come up behind the customer he was waiting on, when I had Edward zoom in on the person I thought I was going to pass out, there on the screen inside Edward's club was James and he was talking to Royce like they were old friends.

"Stop the tape please. That man that Royce is talking to is James; he was here inside the club." Everything was starting to blur, I wasn't sure what was going on, the next thing I know everything goes black.

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"What I want to know is why nobody has seen him, he was in my club!"

"I understand that Mr. Cullen but there is nothing we can do about it. I get that he is a threat to Miss. Swan and we are trying to do everything we can to catch the guy but we are not perfect."

"What is so hard that you can't find him? He is walking the streets; he walked right into the club for god's sake." I was awake now and could hear them talking, well more like Edward was yelling to someone. "What do we need to do so this guy is caught? Do I need to have more security around Bella so that when she leaves the house I know that he won't get near her? Do I need to pay for more cops to be on the force? What please tell me so that we can catch this guy I'll do anything?"

"There isn't anything that you can do Mr. Cullen, we are doing our best. If you see him again call us right away then maybe we have a chance to get him that's all you can do I'm sorry." I could hear a door close so I knew they were gone, I heard movement coming up to me then and thought I should let him know that I'm awake so he doesn't continue to worry.

"I had no idea love; I never knew what that man looked like until you pointed him out to me. I will do everything in my power to get him. I just want you and our baby to be safe," I heard him whisper to me while he placed his hand on my swollen tummy.

"I love you," I told him as I opened my eyes. When I did he was right there looking at me, you could see the emotions in his eyes, he went from happy to sad almost as quickly. "I know that you are doing everything that you can it's not your fault the police aren't doing there job." I reached up to cup the side of his face with my hand, when I did I gently rubbed his jaw line with my thumb. "I know that you love us and would do anything to protect us and you have, if you feel the need to add another person to security for me then fine do it I won't argue with you." He leaned down to kiss me and I held him to me for awhile. It was nice that he was here and taking care of me, it was something that took a great deal of time to get used to but I knew that he only did it because he cared so much about me and his child.

"I love you so much and the thought of someone trying to hurt you make me so damn mad. I wish I would have know that he was in the club, but the cops never showed me what he looked like so I had no idea, I'm so sorry love." He was being clingy again and I knew that he was just worried that he would loose me; he had done it a few times in the past.

"What are they going to do now? Are they going to watch the club and see if he comes back? What about that Royce guy are they going to question him, I mean they were talking like they were old friends maybe he would know something that could help them out."

"They are going to send in an undercover to the club, he will be acting like a bouncer incase things were to get out of hand. Maybe he would come back but I don't know that he will, as for Royce I don't know what they are going to do with him, I told them everything that I could and that I suspected him of steeling money from me but I don't have an proof either it was something that I was looking into. They told me not to say anything to him about the James situation or that I was watching him about the money just to keep an eye on him."

"Ok, I guess I could see that but are they going to question him or do they think that because he was at the club he was just a customer there? I mean he is over 21 so he really had no reason to be there."

"I don't know they didn't say, Emily did say that when you woke up she wanted to talk to you about what happened. My dad was here too while you were out and said that everything was fine with you and the baby and to just let you rest. I'm sorry if I woke you up with all the yelling."

"You didn't wake me don't worry about it. What happened anyway I remember seeing James on the screen and then everything got bury and went black."

"Your blood pressure was threw the roof when I checked it so I think you were having a panic attack, you were also breathing rapidly." Carlisle said as he was coming into the room, I didn't know that he was still here.

"Oh, I didn't know that I was breathing funny either. Thank you Carlisle for taking care of us," I got up from the couch and went to hug him.

"Hey I had to make sure that the first grandbaby was ok." He joked, I'm glad that he wasn't mad about the situation, I know that I had to watch how I reacted to things and I guess I was just so caught off guard that I didn't have time to calm myself before passing out again.

"Do you want to talk to Emily and Sam now or what for a little while?"

"I should do it now and get it over with or else I won't want to do it at all." I really didn't want to talk to them but maybe they could answer some of my questions. Edward went to grab the phone and called Emily telling her that I was awake and ready to talk so they could come back over if they wanted to. He told me that they would be here in about 30 minutes.

When Sam and Emily finally showed up at the house I told them everything that I knew, I didn't know who Royce was until today and I had no idea if he was friends with him or not but they way it looked on the screen they were. I asked if they were going to talk to Royce and they said they would but not to expect anything from it because they didn't think he would talk to them. We sat and talked for a couple hours until they finally left, at least this time he didn't get to me but I knew that it was only a matter of time now. If he was walking into Edwards club not worried about what was going to happen to him then he was going to come after me again.

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The weekend was here and so was Alice ready to get to work on the wedding plan. I told her she could take care of the flowers because I didn't really care what they were as long as they looked nice. Edward and I took care of the caterers and the menu wasn't going to be anything to outrageous. Then we went cake tasting, that was great, we managed to find one that we both liked it took awhile because we couldn't decide on how we wanted it to look, there were just too many options. We also got the invitations that we wanted picked out and met with the photographer. It's been a busy week for us and Edward said that he loved every minute of it. Alice and I were going this weekend to look at wedding dresses also; in fact she was getting me up at the ass crack of dawn tomorrow to start, so not looking forward to getting up that early. There was only a couple more things to arrange and then we would have everything in order, we are going to be getting married in the back yard, the justice had been called and the date set, the reception would also be held here at the house, and I had my bridesmaids picked out.

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"Get your lazy ass out of bed missy!"

"Leave me alone Alice, why, why do we have to get up so fucking early? I do need to sleep you know, growing a baby takes a lot out of a person."

"Whatever get ready to go, we have an appointment in a bit and we need to be there on time so hurry it up." She walked out of my bedroom and closed the door; I guess I better get ready because I know that she will be back. Edward had already left to go over the tapes in the club again to see if anything else was caught that he had missed before and too see if James had been there any other time. After I was ready we headed to the first appointment, I was still tired but at least this time she let me eat first.

"Do you know what you are looking for in a dress?"

"No idea, I'll know it when I see it." We walked into the first shop and I wanted to turn around almost immediately there was no way I was going to afford a dress from there. "I can tell you right now there will be nothing in here that I can afford Alice, you know this." I was a bit upset that she would bring me to someplace like this knowing that I wasn't going to spend Edwards money on my dress.

"Just look you may find something and then we can go from there ok, you may even find your bridesmaid dresses here."

"She's right, just look first and then we can go to other stores." Rose said coming up from one of the racks, I had no idea that she was going to be here, and then I saw Esme too.

"I didn't know you all were going to be here, thank you." I knew that I wanted them in the wedding and I was also going to have my friend Angela and Jessica. "What about Angela and Jess are they going to be here also?"

"Unfortunately they both had to work but said that they would go with whatever you picked out. When they had the chance they would come in and try it on you just needed to call them at let them know what shop it's at." I was saddened by this but I knew they had to work so I really couldn't be too upset.

We shopped for almost 8 hours straight, we did stop to get lunch but that was about it, I did find a dress and bridesmaid dresses for everyone. I was exhausted and ready to go home to bed, but first I wanted to see Edward so I called to see where he was at. He finally answered after the second ring.

"Hey baby, are you on your way home yet?" He sounded a little winded and I wondered what he was doing.

"Yeah we should be there soon. What where you doing that has you so out of breath?"

"I had to run across the house to get the phone, I left it in the kitchen and I was in the living room watching TV. How much longer do you think before you get here?"

"Are you in a hurry to see me or something?"

"Actually I am, I have some good news that you might like to hear and I wanted to tell you in person. Have the girls come in with you because the guys are here too."

"Ok I will we should be there soon. I love you and will see you when I get home then."

"Love you too baby see you in a few." I told the girls about what Edward said and they were going to come in the house when we got there, he said it was good news so I wonder what it was.

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AN:

I know, I know you all hate me know. But don't stress yet good things come to those who wait!


	15. Chapter 15

**I Do Not Own Twilight, Stephanie Meyers does.**

Last chapter! I don't know the justice system and how the courts work so I can almost guarantee that this is not the correct information but remember this is my world so it's ok. LOL

Chapter 15

Once we arrived at the house I could see Edward out front waiting for us to get home. I was curious as to what this great news was; he said he wanted everyone to be there when he told me. As soon as we were parked Edward came running up to the car to open my door for me and help me out, always the gentleman. Once I was out of the car he gave me a very passionate kiss, I almost forgot that there were people here with us when someone cleared there throat.

"I missed you too," I said laughing. "Let's get inside so that you can tell us this great news you have for me." We walked into the living room where everyone was waiting; even Carlisle and Esme were there.

"Ok so what is the news you want to share with everyone?"

"It's finally over!" I just looked at him confused what was he talking about it was finally over? He must have noticed the expression on my face because he went on to explain. "They finally caught James; he's now in police custody with no chance of a bond being set." It was a good thing that I was already sitting down or I might have collapsed right where I was.

"Please tell me this is not some sort of joke, how did they manage to finally get him?"

"They caught him at the house that he had taken you to. The cops were doing there rounds at the house and noticed that one of the back windows were open and they knew it was closed when they last checked so they called it in as a break in. When backup showed they made sure to cover the house incase the person on the inside tried to escape. He must have heard them coming threw the house and tried to leave threw the bedroom window, when he was completely out they were able to apprehend him. He did put up a fight so they used the tazer on him so they could put the cuffs on and read him his rights. When I got the call I wasn't sure if it was true or not, they want you to come down and identify him so they can close the case. He will be finally out of our lives and we won't have to look over our shoulders anymore."

"Why didn't you call me right away? I would have come home sooner if I had known this." I wasn't mad that he didn't call, I was greatly relieved that James would be in jail and hoped that he made a friend while there that would treat him well (note sarcasm).

"I asked them if I should have you come home right away and they said it would take a while to process him, they were going to be putting him threw all sorts of fun stuff it sounded like. They were going to do a full body search and anything else they could think of before the booking was complete I guess, I don't know what all is involved but they said it would be a couple of hours before you would be needed at the station."

"I…shit, I can't believe this is finally happening, it's been years that I have been waiting for this to happen. Do they know why he went back to the house?"

"I have no idea; you could ask them when we get there. How was your shopping trip did you get what you were looking for?"

"Yeah I found a wonderful dress and the bridesmaid's dresses also. I can't wait only a couple more weeks until we are married." I was so excited and now that James was in jail I wouldn't have to worry about him ruining the wedding and once my little girl is here I won't have to worry about him coming after her or me again. "Let's go to the station, I want to make sure that it's really him before I start to celebrate."

"I'm going with you," everyone said at the same time, I just started to laugh it was like it was planned that they say it together.

"Fine with me, let's go!" I was waddling my way out to the car again, this time with Edward by my side.

It took about 30 minutes to get from the house to the station, when we walked the place was busy with activity. I walked up to the desk and asked to speak with either Sam or Emily the receptionist said to take a seat and they would be with me shortly, they were currently booking someone and when they were done they would be out to talk to me. I thanked her and went to sit down with the rest of my family, I couldn't believe that everyone had wanted to come and support me during this time. It felt like hours before anyone came out to talk to us. Sam came out and walked everyone back to a conference room, once seated he told us what was going to happen now.

"Well I see that you have been informed of this wonderful news. What we want for you to do Bella is identify him in a line up, he has asked for a lawyer, once he gets here then we can do that. After that he will be booked and placed in jail until he goes before a judge who will either set his bail or deny him. I honestly don't think any judge in there right mind would let him go on bail so I wouldn't worry too much about that. Unfortunately there is going to be a trial if he pleads not guilty."

"Ok, will he be able to see me when I have to identify him?"

"No, you are going to be looking threw a one way mirror, you can see him but he can't see you. Once all of the people are in the line we will ask you which number you think that he is. His lawyer will be present threw this so that they can't say that we told you what number he was or anything like that."

"Ok I think I can handle that. Can I ask what he was doing at the house?"

"He isn't saying unfortunately so we have no idea. We searched the house again after we had him in custody and there wasn't anything there that would give us any clues as to why he went back. I think that he was just looking for a place to hide out not knowing that we were still watching the place. Don't worry too much about it ok."

"Yeah, um do you know when his lawyer is going to be here?"

"He should be here any minute now; James went threw a rather long process before he was able to call his lawyer. We tried to talk to him but the only thing he would say was that he wanted his lawyer, once he said that we have to stop asking questions and he has the right to his lawyer. I wish we were able to get something from him but he knows that he is going to be in jail so he will want to talk his way out of it." There was a knock on the door just then, a woman poked her head in letting us know that James's lawyer was here and that the line up was ready to go. Sam lead us to the area where this was going to take place, nobody else was allowed to be in there with me other then Sam and James's lawyer who was introduced as Laurent Williams, he seemed like a shady character to me but I kept that opinion to myself for now. One by one men started to come into the other room for the line up and first I was worried because I didn't see James but then the last person to come in was him. I instantly said number 5 was James I would know that man from anywhere he haunted my dream.

"Are you absolutely sure that number 5 is James?" Sam asked me.

"Yes without a doubt that is him." I was confident in my answer. That didn't seem to sit well with his lawyer though. "Ok, thank you for your time Miss. Swan we will be in touch, you are free to leave." I knew that they had everything they needed now and I was ready to go home at this point. I didn't wait to see what would happen to James I just left and went to find Edward and the rest of our family. When I found them in the lobby there was another man with them, I didn't know who he was. As I was walking up to Edward he looked in my direction and his face lit with a smile, I was nice to see him smile all crooked like. I walked up to him and put my arms around his waste the best I could with my huge belly, he wrapped his arms around me in return.

"How did everything go?" I just shrugged I wasn't really sure how it went; I told them what number he was and then left. "Did his lawyer say anything to you? Are you ok?" I shook my head to the first question and nodded my head to the second, I didn't really feel like talking at the moment I just wanted to have his arms wrapped around me for awhile. He must have understood because I could feel him tighten his hold on me, when he had me wrapped in his arms I felt like nothing would hurt me and I knew that I was safe.

"Bella I would like to introduce you to Santiago Mason, he will be your lawyer for this case. He has worked with Laurent before and is familiar with how he is in the court room." Carlisle told me.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Mason," I said while shaking his hand.

"Please call me Santiago; Mr. Mason makes me feel too old." Everyone started to laugh at that including me.

"Ok Santiago, nice to meet you, so you know what this guy is capable of in the courtroom? I know what James is like and this guy gave me the creeps, he reminds me a lot of James in that way. He acted like I didn't know for sure which one was James in the line up. I would know that man anywhere so for him to question my ability to identify him makes me mad."

"What do you mean he questioned your ability?" Santiago asked me, I had to gather my thoughts as to how to word this like he did.

"He didn't say anything, James was the last one they brought in when I said the number he just looked at me like I was an idiot and didn't know what I was talking about. It was the looks he gave me and how he made me feel without actually saying anything. The only person to talk to me was Detective Sam, he just asked me if I was absolutely sure that it was him and I said that I was without a doubt."

"He gives off that vibe even more so when he's in the courtroom making you second guess yourself without actually saying the words. It's one of his many talents unfortunately but the good news is that I am aware of what he does, I've had to go against him a few times and it's always been the same way. When we know more about what is going to happen and when the trial will be we are going to need to get together and go over things. If by some miracle he pleads guilty then we don't have to worry about it, but something tells me that he isn't going to do that. I should warn you now though he may try to go for the insanity plea, its common when they are in a corner and have been stalking the person who they attacked, not to say that he will get away with it but I don't want it to come as a shock to you ok."

"Ok, do you really think that he will do that though? I mean he knew what he was doing and how to get to me so he couldn't have been insane."

"It's a common tactic they use in cases like these, I know that he might not be insane but it will have to be proven by not only there psychologist but ours as well so he would have to fake it twice, not an easy thing to do. If he were to be found "insane" then he would be placed in an institution to help him "get better" but with all the charges on him even if he was released from there he wouldn't be going out into the world again, he is looking at 50 to life for the list he has against him right now at the max."

"Ok I guess, I don't really know how any of this works but if he's not on the streets then I'm happy about that."

"Ok the hearing is set for this coming Monday at 1pm, you don't have to be there for it if your don't want to it's just to set bond, which again I doubt they will with everything that is against him, he will either plead guilty or not and then the date will be set for the trial. Depending on the docket it could be months before anything is to happen so don't worry about it to much ok? Just take care of that baby you are going to have soon and I will let you know what the next step will be ok?"

"Sure, thank you so much for helping me out."

"Not a problem Miss. Swan, I have been with this family for many years now. And congratulations on the baby and the wedding that's coming up." With that we all parted ways and went home, I was so tired I fell asleep in the car. Once we got home I went up and went right to bed not bothering to change before I just didn't care at that time.

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The following Monday Santiago called and said that by some miracle James plead guilty to all counts against him, they weren't going to go the insanity rout yet but it could still happen. I was just glad that we didn't have to go to trial I wasn't sure that I could go threw everything all over again, the first time was hard enough and to have to tell complete strangers what he did to me made me want to puke.

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It was now the day of my wedding and I was so excited, Alice wouldn't let us see each other until the alter. She said that it was tradition for the bride and groom to be separated the night before I told her I didn't give a shit and that I wanted to sleep next to Edward but she wouldn't let me.

I had on my dress and the girls were ready to go but I wanted to give them something first. I had found these necklace's that I thought would go great with there dresses and also a thank you for everything they had done for me. They were of a wing, in a white gold setting and the chain was also white gold.

"I have something I would like to give each of you; it's a thank you gift for all of your help, not just with the wedding but in life itself. I want you to know that I love each and everyone of you with my heart, Alice and Rose we will soon be sister's thank you for allowing me into your lives." I gave them both the box, hugged and kissed them, then I turned to Jessica and Angela, "You two have been the best a friend could ask for, when I was down you always knew how to cheer me up. When things got bad and I was on the run you didn't question it just told me to check in once in a while so that you knew I was safe. I will always be here for the both of you whenever you need me, thank you for being my friends." I did the same with then as Rose and Alice. Earlier in the day I had Alice give Edward a gift from me, she wanted to make sure that they looked great and I asked her to give him my gift she came back later with a gift from him and said that I couldn't open it until just before I was to walk down the isle to him. I had gotten him a pair of cufflinks inscribed with today's date in them and said "I will love you forever", I wanted him to wear them today if Alice approved them she said they did and that he was wearing them now and that he hoped I like what he had gotten me. When she handed me the box I knew it was some kind of jewelry from Tiffany's, I opened the box carefully and when I did I instantly started to tear up. There inside was a beautiful heart shaped pendent in diamonds set in white gold. I had Rose put the necklace on for me then I turned to the mirror to see the final product, I looked beautiful I just wish that my parents were here to see me on this day I knew they were watching from above but I would have given anything for them to be here standing next to me. The photographer was clicking away in the background and I had almost forgotten that he was there, just then there was a knock at the door and Alice went to see who it was. She walked back in with Carlisle in tow; I guess this means that it's time for me to get married.

"Are you ready for this? You can always back out if you want to no one will be mad."

"I thought that you were supposed to be on his side and want me to get married to your son not tell me I can run away." I laughed it was funny that he would say that to me. "But I don't want to run away I want to run to him instead."

"I figured as much but I thought that I would make sure just in case you changed your mind. I know it may seem like a weird thing to say but I'm sure your father would have said that to you right?"

"Yeah he would have," I nodded my head just thinking about him was going to bring me to tears right now.

"Hey no crying, I don't have time to redo your makeup!" Alice yelled at us, I just laughed at her.

"Alright let's get this show on the road folks." Angela said to us all.

Everyone walked down the isle in front of me, now it was my turn, people started to stand as the music played for me. I looked around and noticed all the flowers they were along the isle I was walking down, there was also an arch that I noticed and there he stood in all his hotness was my Edward waiting for me. His eyes were shinning brightly while he watched me, I could practically feel the love and excitement radiating off of him. As Carlisle walked me down the isle I could feel him silently laughing at him, when he squeezed my arm softly I knew it was because I needed to slow down, I guess I was just ready to be married to this man. Once we were in front of Edward Carlisle placed my hand in his, the justice asked who gives her to this man.

"On behalf of her parents who have passed I give her to this man." I was silently crying I had no idea that he was going to say anything about my parents and when he did it was such a nice thought and gesture that I cried. The ceremony went by quickly and before I knew it, it was time to say the vows.

"I Edward Anthony Cullen take you Isabella Marie Swan as my wife from this day fourth till death do us part. I will be by your side in sickness and in health, richer or poorer and in good times and bad. I can't wait to grow old with you and watch our children and grandchildren grow up. For as long as I live you will always have my heart I love you with everything that I am for eternity. " He placed the wedding band on my finger then giving it a tender kiss when he was done. I cleared my throat so that I could say my vows to him.

"I Isabella Marie Swan take you Edward Anthony Cullen as my husband from this day fourth until death do us part. I will nurse you back in sickness and be happy in your health. I will laugh with you and cry with you in good times and bad. For richer or poorer I will always be by your side. I too can't wait to grow old with you and watch as our children and grandchildren grow up. You have my heart for all of eternity; I love you with everything that I am." I placed the ring on his finger and placed a kiss just like he had done to mine.

"By the power vested in me I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss your bride." And kiss me he did, it was so full of passion that when we came up for air I didn't think that I could walk back down the isle. "It is my pleasure to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Cullen, may you both have a wonderful life filled with peace and joy." We thanked the justice and walked down the isle so we could greet our family and friends.

The reception was great, we danced and ate then danced some more. I was starting to get tired now and I just wanted to go to bed with my husband by my side.

"Hey love, how are you feeling? Are you ready to get out of here?"

"Yes, I'm so ready to leave; I don't know how long I can stay awake right now." We said goodbye to everyone and thanked them for coming and celebrating this day with us. Once inside the house Edward and I made our way upstairs to our room, I started to strip once the door was closed. Edward came up behind me to help with the zipper taking his time, finally the dress was unzipped I held my arm over my breast so that it wouldn't completely fall off, I didn't want him to see anything just yet I had another surprise for him. I walked into the bathroom and slipped off my dress and put on my baby doll with matching thong, I knew that he would like it not that he had seen me in something like this before but he was a man and most did like to be surprised like this on the night of the wedding or at least I hoped so. When I walked out of the bathroom Edward had set up candles around the room so there was a nice soft glow, I found him sitting on the bed waiting for me, when he looked at me I could see the lust in his eyes.

"My god baby you look…I don't even have words to describe how you look. You are just so stunning, turn around and let me get a good look at you." I did as he requested and turned slowly in a slow circle for him I could hear his breathing spike when I was facing away from him and then I heard him groan. "Do you have any idea what this outfit is doing to me?"

"Nope, why don't you show me?" And show me he did well into the night. That was the best way to spend the night of our wedding.

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The weeks flew by and I prepared for our little girl to get here. Everyone told me that I was nesting but I didn't really care I just wanted everything perfect for when we brought her home. I had the clothes folded and put away and the bassinet was made and ready for her. I had the bathroom ready also, the baby shampoo and her little tub was all set up ready to use and the towels with little hoods on them were right in reach so I wouldn't have to let her go at any time. Edward also had the house baby proofed even though it would be a while before she would be crawling or walking but he wanted to get it done incase something happened and he didn't get to it later.

Things at the club had been going better for him now, we still don't know who it was that was taking the money but they seemed to have stopped for the time being. I still had my suspicions about Royce, whoever it was must have caught wind that he was looking into things and they decided it wasn't worth it. That was a good thing for me, he would come home happier and not as tired which led to wonderful welcome home sex. It seems like I haven't been able to get enough of the man it was starting to get crazy.

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I was now past my due date and getting nervous about it, they told me that I could be as much as two weeks late for my first time but it was getting harder and harder to move around and get comfortable. It didn't matter if I was sitting or laying down I would still hurt, it seemed that my back was taking the beating here now. I was lying on the couch after I had finally found a comfy spot when Edward walked into the room scaring me, the next thing I know it felt like I had peed in my pants. When I looked at Edward he asked me what was wrong so I told him.

"I feel like I peed my pants what the hell?" I was confused and then it was light a light click on, "Holy shit my water just broke."

"Ok should I call the doctor now? Are you in any pain?"

"We can wait a little bit to call the doctor, I'm not having any," I was cut off by a sharp pain in my lower back. "Ok maybe I'm having contractions now but it's in my lower back. Let's wait a little bit and see how they go ok. Why don't we call everyone first and then when that's done we can call the doctor. Oh I need you to help me up first so I can go change."

About two hours later we were on our way to the hospital, my contractions were now about 3 minutes apart and they were getting stronger. They got us into a room right away and the doctor was there waiting for me.

"I want to take a look at how far along you are and then we can go from there ok? Are you going to want any meds, if so now is the time to get that set up also?"

"Yes I want the meds, I don't think I could do it without just because of all the injuries that I had."

"Ok not a problem let me take a look first. Put your feet up on the stir-ups and then we can get started." I did as she asked, when she was done she patted me on the knee so I knew I could out my feet down.

"Well the good news is that you are at 6 cm now only 4 more to go, let me call the Dr on call and have him come down and do the meds for you. Once those are in then it's just a matter of waiting but I don't think your going to have to wait to long before this little one is here, she seems eager now to come out." About 10 minutes after she placed the call the Dr came in and gave me the epidural, it hurt and I cried but once it was in I felt no pain from the waist down. Edward and I sat with our family and friends and talked until I had the sudden urge to pee.

"Edward can you call the nurse in here please?"

"Sure baby let me go get here ok, I'll be right back." He placed a kiss on my temple and then left, everyone was looking at me to make sure that I was ok.

"I'm fine guys I just have to pee," the look on the guy's faces was priceless, I just started to laugh at them for being dorky. The nurse came in followed by Edward and I told her that I had to pee she said that I really didn't I was now going to be able to push the baby out. She ushered everyone out of the room except Edward and Esme and went to get the doctor and let her know what was going on. The doctor quickly came into the room and did another check on my cervix to see how everything was going she said that I was fully dilated and ready to push now so they got me set up again in the stir-ups. Everything after that went so fast and before long I could hear the cries of our little girl fill the room, it was such a wonderful sound to hear.

"Congrats guys you have a beautiful little girl. Dad would you like to cut the cord?" Edward nodded his head in response with a huge smile on his face. Once that was done they wrapped her up and laid her on my chest so that we could see here, she was absolutely beautiful, she had just a little tuff of hair but it was wet so I wasn't sure what it would look like yet and her eyes were still closed. The nurses took her to clean her up and do the other things they needed to before I could have her back. Once they were done she was handed back to me so that I could feed her, she took to my breast like a pro, it was the most intense feeling to have her here with us, I looked up to see Edward watching us in awe while he still had tears in his eyes, I reached my hand for him and he sat gently on the side of the bed running his hand over her head. Just then a flash went off, I completely forgot that Esme was still in the room, she had captured a moment for us to record, granted I didn't really want my boob hanging out in the picture but hey what are you going to do.

"You guys look…just wonderful, thank you so, so much Bella for this little blessing." Esme said threw her tears, I reached my hand out to her so that she would come close to me. When she did I gave her the best hug that I could while feeding my baby girl. "Have you two come up with a name yet?"

"Yeah we have, it actually has a meaning to it as well. We are going to name her Erina for the first name which means blessing and her middle name will be Esme which means loved and it's your name."

"Oh that's what did you say her middle name was Esme? Oh thank you dear you don't know how much that means to me." She was full on crying now; Edward got up and wrapped her in his arms holding her until she was able to get herself together.

"I'm going to go out and let the rest of the family know that she's finally here but I won't be telling them her name I'll leave that up to you guys to do." When she walked out Erina was done feeding so I gently placed her on my shoulder and rubbed her back in circles she let out a good burp for her size. Just then everyone was ready to come in and see her; she was passed around from one person to the next. I was so funny to see Emmett with this little baby that could easily fit in his hand holding her like a porcelain doll. Once everyone had seen her and held her they all asked what her name was everyone like it. Our family was complete for now; it would have to be someone else's turn next.

THE END

AN:

So that's the end of it. I hope that you all have enjoyed the story, it's been hard to finish but I really couldn't see it going anywhere else right now she has her beautiful daughter and a husband, she family is there with her and she is healthy.


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